Steve Dodd facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Steve Dodd
Steve Dodd, serving with the Australian Army in Korea (1953), Australian War Memorial
Born	1 June 1928 Unclear (see below)
Died	10 November 2014(2014-11-10) (aged 86) Basin View, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Actor, stockman
Years active	1946–2008

Steve Dodd (born June 1, 1928 – died November 10, 2014) was an amazing Indigenous Australian actor. He was famous for playing Indigenous characters in Australian movies and TV shows for over 60 years!

Before becoming an actor, Steve worked as a stockman (someone who looks after cattle) and a rodeo rider. He even served in the Australian Army during the Korean War. Steve appeared in many big Australian films like Gallipoli and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. He also had small parts in international movies filmed in Australia, such as The Matrix. Steve was also in early Australian TV shows like Homicide and Rush, and later ones like The Flying Doctors. In 2013, he received a special award called the Jimmy Little Lifetime Achievement Award for his long career.

Steve Dodd's Life Outside Acting

Steve Dodd was also known as Mullawa or Mulla walla, which means "flying fish." He was an Arrernte man from central Australia. It's not completely clear where he was born, but he said he was from South Australia. Records show his birth date as June 1, 1928.

Steve was a bachelor, meaning he never married. He once mentioned that his father and six brothers lived in the Northern Territory.

Working as a Stockman and Rodeo Rider

For a long time, Indigenous Australian men were very important as stockmen in Australia. They also showed off their skills in competitions called "rough riding" or rodeos. Steve Dodd worked as a stockman, someone who trains horses, and a rodeo rider. He even worked for a famous entertainer named Smoky Dawson. Steve was part of the Rough Riders Association and performed at the Calgary Stampede in Canada in 1964.

Serving in the Army

Steve served in the Australian Army for six years during the Korean War. He was part of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. He said he was the first Aboriginal person from South Australia to join up for the Korean War. There's even a photo of him in his army uniform in Korea at the Australian War Memorial.

Other Jobs and Achievements

From 1969 to at least 1973, Steve worked as a guide for a company called Airlines of New South Wales. He took tours to famous places in central Australia, like Uluru. Steve also said he showed people how to throw boomerangs and spears at a big event called Expo 70 and at an Olympic Games. He even took part in a re-enactment of Captain James Cook's landing in Australia for the Australian Bicentenary celebrations.

In 1985, Steve lived in Manly, New South Wales. For the last 20 years of his life, he lived in St Georges Basin on the south coast of New South Wales. He passed away there on November 10, 2014, when he was 86 years old.

Steve Dodd's Acting Career

Starting Out in Movies

Steve Dodd got his first chance to act in an Australian film in 1946. A famous actor named Chips Rafferty saw Steve on the set of The Overlanders and gave him a small role. This was the first of three movies Steve did with Chips Rafferty. The second was Bitter Springs in 1950. This film was important because it showed the serious relationship between white settlers and Aboriginal people in a more honest way than most Australian films at that time.

Chips Rafferty, the actor who helped Steve Dodd get his first movie roles

Steve was working on Bitter Springs as a tracker and interpreter when Chips Rafferty helped him get an on-screen part. Chips Rafferty was known for getting along well with Indigenous people. Steve admired Chips Rafferty's dream for an Australian film industry and how it could create chances for Indigenous Australians.

Chips Rafferty was also the star of the film that gave Steve his third small role, Kangaroo (1952).

In 1957, Steve traveled to Britain and the United States for six months with an English company called the J Arthur Rank Organisation. They were making a movie called Robbery Under Arms. Steve also said he worked with Rafferty on a fourth film, Wake in Fright, in 1971, but his name isn't on the official cast lists for that movie.

On Stage and TV

Steve also acted on stage. In 1966, he played Darky Morris in a play called Desire of the Moth. He also appeared in an early play by Kevin Gilbert called The Cherry Pickers in 1971.

Steve had many small roles on television. He appeared in a TV show with Smoky Dawson called Adventure with Smoky Dawson: Tim Goes Walkabout. He also worked on documentaries for the Channel 7 and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Steve had small parts in many early Australian TV dramas from the 1960s and 1970s, including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Division 4, Woobinda – Animal Doctor, Spyforce, Homicide, and Rush.

Even though Steve got many small parts, he and other Aboriginal actors often found themselves playing similar, minor roles. Another Indigenous actor, Gary Foley, said Steve used to joke that he was tired of roles where his only line was, "He went that way, Boss!" This shows how Indigenous actors were often limited in the types of characters they could play.

Later Career and Important Films

Steve Dodd was in several films that talked about important issues for Indigenous Australians, like land rights and race relations. These included Bitter Springs and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978).

The 1980s were a very busy time for Steve's acting career. By 1985, he had acted in 55 movies or TV shows! In 1981, he played Billy Snakeskin in the movie Gallipoli, which was about young soldiers in World War I. He also appeared in Chase Through the Night and Essington in 1984. In 1985, he played Mr Joe in The Coca-Cola Kid, a romantic comedy. In 1986, he was in Short Changed, and in the mid-1980s, he had small parts in the popular TV series The Flying Doctors.

Steve also acted in films that dealt with serious Indigenous issues. A decade after Jimmie Blacksmith, he was in Ground Zero (1987). This movie was a thriller about claims that Indigenous Australians were used in British nuclear tests. Steve played a small character named Freddy Tjapaljarri.

In 1990, Steve appeared in two films: Quigley Down Under, a western movie filmed in Australia, and The Crossing, an Australian drama.

Steve's career continued to focus on important Indigenous topics when he played a small role, Kummengu, in the 1991 film Deadly. This was a police drama about the death of an Indigenous man in police custody. This topic was very important at the time, as a big investigation into Aboriginal deaths in custody was happening.

In 1999, Steve was one of three actors in Wind, a short film about an old Aboriginal man being chased. That same year, he was in the most successful movie of his career, The Matrix, where he played a blind man. Later, Steve had small roles in a TV show called The Alice (2006) and the movies My Country (2007) and Broken Sun (2008). By this time, his career in film and television had lasted for over sixty years!

In 2013, Steve Dodd received the Jimmy Little Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19th Deadly Awards. This award is usually given to musicians, but the organizers gave it to Steve because he was an actor who helped create opportunities for other Indigenous people in the arts. He did this at a time when it was very common for Indigenous actors to be given only certain types of roles and to face discrimination.

Filmography