Bob Ellis

Robert James Ellis (10 May 1942 – 3 April 2016) was an Australian journalist, screenwriter, playwright, filmmaker, and political commentator. He lived in Sydney with author and screenwriter Anne Brooksbank; they had three children.

Early years

Ellis was raised a Seventh-day Adventist. He says the "seminal moment" of his life happened when he was ten and his 22-year-old sister was killed while crossing the road.Bob Ellis, "What I Know About Women"
, ''Daily Life'', 19 August 2012, accessed 23 October 2012.

He attended Lismore High and then the University of Sydney on a Sir Robert Menzies scholarship, at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Les Murray, John Bell, Robert Hughes and Mungo McCallum. After graduating he had a variety of jobs before being employed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Writing career

Ellis was a regular contributor to the ''Nation Review'' in the 1970s and subsequently contributed to Fairfax Media newspapers and '' The National Times.''

Ellis became a popular playwright, usually working in collaboration. In 1970 he and Michael Boddy (1934–2014) co-wrote '' The Legend of King O'Malley'', a musical play based on the life of King O'Malley. From 1975 to 1986 he and Brooksbank also owned the Stables Theatre in Kings Cross, Sydney, during which time it became home to the Griffin Theatre Company.'''' They sold it in 1986 for $200,000.

Ellis wrote several film scripts, often in collaboration with others, notably ''Newsfront'' (1978), '' ...Maybe This Time'' (1980, with Anne Brooksbank), '' Fatty Finn'' (1980) '' Man of Flowers'' (1983, with Paul Cox), '' Goodbye Paradise'' (1983), '' Where the Green Ants Dream'' (''Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen'') (1984, with Werner Herzog), '' My First Wife'' (1984, with Paul Cox), ''Cactus'' (1986, with Paul Cox) and '' The Nostradamus Kid'' (1992).

In 1980 Ellis signed a contract with the New South Wales Film Corporation to write ten feature film scripts over two years for $7,000 for each script, with a payment of $12,000 for the second draft if they wanted to make the movie. Ellis says he presented them with 33 ideas, they chose five and he chose five.

Ellis also directed several films, including ''The Nostradamus Kid'' (1992), '' Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train'' (1988), ''Unfinished Business'' (1985) and ''Run Rabbit, Run'' (2007).

Ellis's writing for television included the miniseries '' True Believers'' (with co-author Matt Carroll) and ''Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal'' (2008), with co-author Geoff Burton, made for Film Australia.

Awards

Ellis won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay three times: ''Newsfront'' (1978, with Anne Brooksbank and Phillip Noyce), '' Goodbye Paradise'' (1982, with Denny Lawrence), and '' My First Wife'' (1984, with Paul Cox).

Politics

Ellis, a supporter of the Australian Labor Party, wrote speeches for a number of Labor leaders (such as Bob Carr, Paul Keating and Kim Beazley) and wrote extensively on Labor history.

Regarding Ellis's speech writing, Beazley said on the ''7.30 Report'' that if he had used any of Ellis's speeches he would have been out of politics.

Ellis unsuccessfully contested the Federal seat of Mackellar as an independent candidate against the Liberal Party's Bronwyn Bishop in a by-election in 1994 as the ALP did not field a candidate in that by-election.

Ellis's 2011 book ''Suddenly, Last Winter – An Election Diary'' created headlines for its criticism of the Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and praise for the Liberal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. He described Gillard as "not well informed" and "sudden, firm and wrong" in everything she does. He also said "She has no power, no influence, no friends, no learning. There's not much there", while describing Abbott as having "good manners", being "formidable" and possessing a "first-class mind".

Ellis wrote speeches for South Australian Premier Mike Rann for a number of years.

Death

On 18 July 2015, Ellis reported on his blog that he would be attending hospital for what he called "ominous" tests on his liver. The next day he announced "The news is very bad", and that the tests had revealed he had advanced liver cancer with a prognosis that he had months, if not weeks, to live.

Ellis died on 3 April 2016, at his home in Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Controversy

In June 2018, Kate and Rozanna Lilley, daughters of celebrated playwright Dorothy Hewett, alleged that they had engaged in consensual sex at the ages of 15 and 14 with Ellis.Mum’s men used us for under-age sex, say Dorothy Hewett’s daughters
The Australian, June 9, 2018 Ellis was castigated by feminists including Delaney and Maley.

Writings

Ellis wrote two books, ''Goodbye Jerusalem'' and ''Goodbye Babylon'', on his experiences of the Labor Party. The first edition of ''Goodbye Jerusalem'' was pulped following a successful defamation case brought by two Liberal cabinet ministers, Tony Abbott and Peter Costello, and their wives. At issue was the single sentence where Ellis quoted politician Rodney Cavalier as having said, "Abbott and Costello...they're both in the Right wing of the Labour icParty till the one woman fucked both of them and married one of them and inducted them into the Young Liberals". The publisher, Random House, accepted that the disputed content was a falsehood and the book was removed from sale. ACT Supreme Court Justice Higgins awarded the two politicians and their wives a total of $277,000 damages. A new edition of the book was published three months later which omitted the defamatory passage.

In 1998 Penguin Books Australia published Ellis's ''First Abolish the Customer – 202 Arguments Against Economic Rationalism'', then Ellis's ''The Capitalism Delusion – How Global Economics Wrecked Everything and What To Do About It'' in 2009, ''One Hundred Days of Summer'' in 2010, and ''The Ellis Laws'' in 2014.

Bibliography

Plays

*'' The Legend of King O'Malley'' (1970) with Michael Boddy
*'' Big Brother Dragon'' (1971) with Michael Boddy
*'' Duke of Edinburgh Assassinated or The Vindication of Henry Parkes'' (1971) with Dick Hall
*''The Francis James Dossier'' (1973) – later '' The James Dossier'' (1975) – musical about Francis James
*''Whitlam Days'' (1975)
*'' Down Under'' (1976) with Anne Brooksbank
*'' A Very Good Year'' (1980)
*''Man, the musical'' (1990s) book and lyrics with Denny Lawrence, music by Chris Neal
*'' A Local Man: A Play about Ben Chifley'' (2004) with Robin McLachlan
*''Shakespeare in Italy'' (2012) with Denny Lawrence
*''Intimate Strangers'' (unproduced) with Denny Lawrence

Screenplays

*''Newsfront'' (1978) with Anne Brooksbank
*'' Fatty Finn'' (1980)
*'' Maybe This Time'' (1980) with Anne Brooksbank
*'' Goodbye Paradise'' (1983) with Denny Lawrence
*'' Man of Flowers'' (1983) with Paul Cox
*'' The Winds of Jarrah'' (1983)
*'' My First Wife'' (1984) with Paul Cox
*'' Unfinished Business'' (1985) – also directed
*''Top Kid'' (1985) (TV) with John Hepworth
*''The Paper Boy'' (1985) (TV) with John Hepworth
*''Cactus'' (1986) with Paul Cox
*''The Gillies Republic'' (1986) (TV)
*'' Bullseye'' (1987)
*'' Perhaps Love'' (1987) (TV)
*'' True Believers'' (1988) (TV)
*'' Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train'' (1988) – also directed
*''Gillies and Company'' (1992) (TV)
*'' Dreaming of Lords'' (1993) with Ernie Dingo – also directed
*'' The Nostradamus Kid'' (1993) – also directed
*'' Ebbtide'' (1994)
*'' Wildside'' (1998) Episode 24
*''Bastards from the Bush, A Journey with Bob Ellis and Les Murray'' (1998) – documentary
*''Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal'' (2008) – documentary

Unmade screenplays

*''The Road to Gundagai'' (1980) – vehicle for Bert Newton and Gerard Kennedy as soldiers on latrine duty during the bombing of Darwin
*comedy script about radio actors in the 1940s (circa 1980)
*adaptation of '' The Sentimental Bloke'' for director Maurice Murphy starring Phillip QuastDavid Stratton, ''The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry'', Pan MacMillan, 1990 p186
*mini-series with James Ricketson about Bea Miles (circa 1980)
*road film about two girls going north to audition for a cabaret version of ''Brigadoon'' in Surfers Paradise (circa 1980)
*''These Remembrances'' set around the time of the Whitlam Dismissal (circa 1980)
*''The Girl from Kiev'' about two 40-year-old divorced lawyers travelling near Chernobyl falling for a Russian girlAndrew L. Urban, "Bob Ellis' The Nostradamus Kid", ''Cinema Papers'', January 1992 p15
*adaptation of ''Homage to Catalonia'' for director Hugh Hudson starring Colin Firth and Kevin Spacey
*''Shakespeare in Italy'' (2011)
*''Paper Tigers'' – mini series about the Murdoch family

Novels

*''Mad Dog Morgan'' (1976) with Anne Brooksbank – based on the Philippe Mora film ''Mad Dog Morgan''
*''Fatty Finn'' (1980) – based on his film script
*''Top Kid'' (1985) – novelisation with John Hepworth of his film script
*''The Paper Boy'' (1985) - novelisation with John Hepworth of his film script
*''The Hewson Tapes : A Secret History, Perhaps, of Our Times'' (1993) – fiction presented as the diary of John Hewson
*''The Season'' (1996) – with Roy Masters

Non-fiction

*''The Things We Did Last Summer: An Election Journal'' – account of the 1983 Australian federal election
*''Two weeks in another country : a journal of the 1983 British election'' – account of the 1983 United Kingdom general election
*''Letters to the Future'' (1987) – collection of writings from 1969–87
*''The Inessential Ellis'' (1992) – collection of writings
*''Goodbye Jerusalem : night thoughts of a Labor outsider'' (1997) – writings centred on the history of the Australian Labor Party up to the 1996 Australian federal election
*''First abolish the customer: 202 arguments against economic rationalism'' (1998)
*''So it goes : essays, broadcasts, speeches 1987–1999'' (1999)
*''Goodbye Babylon : further journeys in time and politics'' (2002)
*''Night thoughts in time of war'' (2004)
*''And so it went: night thoughts in a year of change'' (2009) – events around the 2007 Australian federal election
*''The capitalism delusion : how global economics wrecked everything and what to do about it'' (2009)
*
*''One hundred days of summer : how we got to where we are'' (2010)
*''Suddenly, last winter : an election diary'' (2010) – diary of the 2010 Australian federal election
*''The Ellis Laws'' (2014)

Acting

*'' Man of Flowers'' (1983) – film
*'' I Own the Racecourse'' (1985) – film
*''The Human Behan'' (1995–1996) – play
*''Waiting for Godot'' (2000) – play

References

Further reading

*
*
*
* Leser, David "The two of us: Bob Ellis & Anne Brooksbank" ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (Good Weekend) 16 August 1997 p. 12
* Arts news "Arts community to help Bob Ellis, after recent house fire" ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' 24 April 1993 p. 46
* King, Noel "Abbott and Costello. View From The Couch" ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (Good Weekend) 21 November 1998 p. 94

External links

Interview with Bob EllisEllis Table Talk (blog)
*
Bob Ellis's Australian theatre credits
at AusStage
Bob Ellis Essays on the ABC website ''Unleashed''1988 interview with Bob Ellis
at SBS Movie Show
Table Talk: Bob Ellis on Film and Theatre
blog
Bob Ellis
at Australian Screen Online

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Bob
1942 births
2016 deaths
Australian film directors
Australian freelance journalists
Australian media personalities
Australian music video directors
Australian screenwriters
Deaths from cancer in New South Wales
Deaths from liver cancer in Australia
Overland (magazine) people
People from the Northern Beaches
People from the Northern Rivers
University of Sydney alumni
Writers from New South Wales