Benita Collings
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Benita Collings
Benita Collings (born 1940) is an Australian theatre, television and film character actress and children's television presenter best known for her role on ABC TV's '' Play School''. Collings has also featured in documentaries and commercials. Professional career Theatre, television and film Collings started her career in 1955 at the Independent Theatre under Dame Doris Fitton and also trained in ballet and jazz, under Ronne Arnold. By 1960, she had joined the Ensemble Theatre under producer and director Hayes Gordon, appearing in numerous plays including a production of Neil Simons, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, directed by Jon Ewing, Absurd Person Singular and Doctor in the House. Collings is best known for her long-running stint as a presenter for '' Play School'' on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from 1969 until 1999; she was one of the longest-serving presenters after a 30-year tenure, and although is credited with appearing in the most episodes, her tenure o ...
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Simon Burke
Simon Gareth Burke (born 8 October 1961) is an Australian actor, active in films, television and theatre. Biography Simon Burke began his career at the age of 12, starring in Michael Cove's ''Kookaburra''; a painful look at a dysfunctional working-class family, focusing particularly on an almost autistic young boy. Soon after at the age of 13, Burke starred in Fred Schepisi's acclaimed feature film '' The Devil's Playground'' for which he won the AFI Award for Best Actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards. He remains the youngest person ever to be honoured with this award. Since then he has enjoyed great success both in Australia and internationally in film, television, stage, concert appearances and cabaret. In 2014, Simon starred in Matchbox Pictures/NBC-Universal's highly acclaimed mini-series '' Devil’s Playground'' in which he reprised the role of Tom Allen that he created as a 13-year-old. He is the co-creator and executive producer of the project, which this yea ...
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National Museum Of Australia
The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Museum of Australia Act 1980''. The museum did not have a permanent home until 11 March 2001, when a purpose-built museum building was officially opened. The museum profiles 50,000 years of Indigenous heritage, settlement since 1788 and key events including Federation and the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The museum holds the world's largest collection of Aboriginal bark paintings and stone tools, the heart of champion racehorse Phar Lap and the Holden prototype No. 1 car. The museum also develops and travels exhibitions on subjects ranging from bushrangers to surf lifesaving. The National Museum of Australia Press publishes a wide range of books, catalogues and journals. The museum's Research Centre takes a cross-disciplinary approach to histor ...
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Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award. In the first few years of his career, he starred in a variety of films such as ''Valley Girl'' (1983), '' Peggy Sue Got Married'' (1986), '' Raising Arizona'' (1987), '' Moonstruck'' (1987) and '' Wild at Heart'' (1990). During this period, John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 36 listed him as one of 12 ''Promising New Actors of 1984''. For his performance in ''Leaving Las Vegas'' (1995), he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He subsequently appeared in more mainstream films, including '' The Rock'' (1996), '' Con Air'' (1997), ''Face/Off'' (1997), '' City of Angels'' (1998), '' Gone in 60 Seconds'' (2000), ''The Family Man'' (2000), '' Windtalkers'' (2002), the ''National Treasure'' film series (2004–2 ...
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Knowing (film)
''Knowing'' is a 2009 American science fiction film, science fiction thriller film directed and co-produced by Alex Proyas and starring Nicolas Cage. The film, conceived and co-written by Ryne Douglas Pearson, was originally attached to a number of directors under Columbia Pictures, but it was placed in turnaround (filmmaking), turnaround and eventually picked up by Escape Artists. Production was financially backed by Summit Entertainment. ''Knowing'' was filmed in Docklands Studios Melbourne, Australia, using various locations to represent the film's Boston-area setting. The film centers on the discovery of a strange paper filled with numbers and the possibility that they somehow predict the details of various disasters culminating in the apocalypse. The film was released on March 20, 2009, in the United States. The DVD and Blu-ray media were released on July 7, 2009. ''Knowing'' grossed $186.5 million at the worldwide box office, plus $27.7 million with home video sales, agains ...
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IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. It is now owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon. the database contained some million titles (including television episodes) and million person records. Additionally, the site had 83 million registered users. The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017. Features The title and talent ''pages'' of IMDb are accessible to all users, but only registered and logged-in users can submit new material and suggest edits to existing entries. Most of the site's data has been provided by these volunteers. Registered users with a prov ...
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A Country Practice
''A Country Practice'' is an Australian television soap opera which broadcast on the Seven Network from 18 November 1981 until 5 November 1993, airing at 7:30 pm on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Altogether, 14 seasons and 1,058 episodes were produced. The show was produced at the ATN-7's production facility at Epping, New South Wales, Pitt Town and Oakville, suburbs on the outskirts of northwest Sydney, Australia, where used for most of the exterior filming, with the historic heritage-listed Clare House, built in 1838, serving as the location of the Wandin Valley Bush Nursing Hospital. Many other fictional locations, including Dr. Terence Elliot's (Shane Porteous) medical practice, Frank and Shirley Gilroy's house Brian Wenzel and Lorrae Desmond, the Wandin Valley Church and Burrigan High School where filmed in the Hawkesbury. Several of the regular cast members became popular celebrities as a result of their roles in the series. It also featured a number of native ...
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Rafferty's Rules
''Rafferty's Rules'' is an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1991 on the Seven Network. The producers of the series were Posie Graeme-Evans (1987–1988), and Denis Phelen. The directors were Graham Thorburn, Mike Smith and Russell Webb. The writers were David Allen, John Upton, Tim Gooding and David Marsh. ''Rafferty's Rules'' was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead role was re-cast to John Wood. This second recording was eventually broadcast as the program's first episode. Initially it was hoped that the program would make its debut during the 1985 ratings season and there was an option to extend the series to 26 episodes i ...
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Sons And Daughters (Australian TV Series)
''Sons and Daughters'' is an Australian Logie Award-winning soap opera/drama serial, broadcast by the Seven Network between January 1982 and December 1987 and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation. It was created by executive Reg Watson, and is distributed by Fremantle. ''Sons and Daughters'' is remembered for its regular use of dramatic cliffhangers and its most famous character; Patricia "Pat the Rat" Hamilton, initially played by Rowena Wallace, who became the first soap star, non-personality to win the Gold Logie award for her spirited performance in the role - when she left the series in 1985, the part was recast, with Belinda Giblin taking over the role, following the character receiving extensive plastic surgery in the storyline, and returning as Alison Carr. The extended pilot episode premiered on Monday, 18 January 1982, during the Christmas/New Year non-ratings period in Sydney and Melbourne, and the following week in Brisbane and Adelaide. For the first two ...
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The Young Doctors
''The Young Doctors'' is an Australian early-evening soap opera originally broadcast on the Nine Network and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation, it aired from Monday, 8 November 1976 until Wednesday, 30 March 1983. The series is primarily set in the fictional ''Albert Memorial Hospital'', as well as the nightclub ''Bunny's'', and is fundamentally concerned with the romances and relations between younger members of the hospital staff, rather than typical medical issues and procedures. The program was shown in exported internationally including throughout North America and Canada and Europe including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and Spain. Series history The series produced by the Grundy Organisation was created and devised by Alan Coleman with Reg Watson acting as Executive Producer. Watson had been the Producer of the British TV soap opera ''Crossroads'' from 1964 to 1973 and he moved back to Australia to help set up a new drama department within the ...
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The Sullivans
''The Sullivans'' is an Australian period drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran on the Nine Network from 15 November 1976 until 10 March 1983. The series tells the story of a fictional average middle-class Melbourne family and the effect that the Second World War and the immediate post-war events had on their lives. It covers the period between 1 September 1939 to 22 August 1948. It was a consistent ratings success in Australia, and also became popular in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Gibraltar, Greece and New Zealand. Pre-production The show was purchased by Channel Nine without a pilot program being produced. They commissioned 34 hours with a view to extension. Fourteen writers were assigned to the thirteen plot lines which had been devised. The cast had not been established when they started writing the series and three months later they still had only two cast members, Vikki Hammond and Noni Hazlehu ...
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The Restless Years
''The Restless Years'' is an Australian soap opera which followed the lives of several Sydney school-leavers and the drama and relationships faced by young adults. It was created by Reg Watson and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation for Network Ten. The series debuted in a prime time slot on 6 December 1977 (during the end-of-year TV non-ratings period, in the vein of the Seven Network serial ''Cop Shop'', which had premiered the previous week in the out of ratings period) and was creator Watson's second successful soap opera in Australia, following ''The Young Doctors''. It had a successful run of four years, until December 1981, and ran 781 x 30 minute episodes. It was not renewed by the network due to declining ratings. The series had a predominantly young audience. The series was Grundy's third foray into creating successful soap operas, and followed a similar theme to their previous school room drama '' Class of '74''. Theme tune The opening and closing theme title ...
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Matlock Police
''Matlock Police'' is an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the 0-10 Network (now known as the 10 Network) between 1971 and 1976. The series focused on the police station and crime in the Victorian town of Matlock and the surrounding district, and the backgrounds and personal lives of the main policemen. Background The series was the 0-10 Network's attempt to come up with a police show to rival ''Homicide'' (shown by the 7 Network) and ''Division 4'' (on the 9 Network). ''Matlock Police'' was different from its Melbourne-based predecessors by being set in a small country town, the fictional Matlock, Victoria (a real Matlock does exist in Victoria, but it is much smaller than the town depicted by this series, which is loosely based on Shepparton). These program's introduction featured an overhead shot of a town with a divided road, thought to be of Bairnsdale in Victoria. Series writers had a reference manual giving full details of th ...
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