List of Old Falconians - Arts and Media

Arts and Media

• Tom Allard, the Indonesia correspondent for both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, former national security editor, defence and foreign affairs correspondent, and economics writer for The Sydney Morning Herald, has reported extensively, including on conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor;
• Richard Appleton, poet, raconteur and editor who became editor-in-chief of the Australian Encyclopaedia. He was described in Clive James’s 2003 book As of This Writing as "among the most gifted" Australian poets of his time. In conjunction with his wife, Barbara, he compiled the Cambridge Dictionary of Australian Places. In the 1980s Appleton edited the Australian content of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In response to the premature announcement of his death, he famously said: "not everybody gets to read his own obituary".
• Leigh Blackmore, horror writer, critic, editor and occultist.
• Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill, author of The Dam Busters, Reach For The Sky, The Great Escape;
• Rob Butler, founder of HyperDyne Pty Ltd who co-authored Microsoft Video for Windows 1990 – 1991, Microsoft 3D Animator, Microsoft P.J.'s Reading Adventures and Microsoft My Personal Tutor series. Rob later worked with Microsoft to develop software to make internet access easy for beginners and is still involved with software that empowers the user to solve their own internet problems.
• Michael Carson, ABC television director who directed Jimmy Dancer, Scales of Justice, Police Rescue, Phoenix, Janus and Sea Change;
• Patrick Conroy AM, Head of ABC TV (1988-95);
• Jason Dasey, Broadcaster and Journalist, first Australian sports presenter on BBC World and CNN. Also worked for ESPN in Asia & USA. Now Vice President for Astro, Malaysia
• Robert Dessaix, novelist, essayist and journalist, his first fictional work, Night Letters, was published in 1996 and translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch, Finnish and Portuguese;
• John Gordon AO Hon MMus, he was appointed as the first Canberra carillonist and gave the inaugural recital on 25 April 1970 in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the National Carillon (a gift of the British Government) is located on Aspen Island and the footbridge there is now named in his honour, he was appointed to the new post of Sydney University Carillonist in 1944, a position he held continuously until his death in 1991;
• Gordon Gostelow, English actor often cast in villainous roles; he appeared notably as Barkis in David Copperfield (1966) and as Newman Noggs in Nicholas Nickleby (1968);
• Ken G. Hall AO OBE, first Australian to win an Oscar, awarded in 1942 for documentary Kokoda Front Line;
• Jackson Harrison, pianist and composer, winner of National Jazz Award at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival in 2006, debut CD is Land Tides;
• George Houvardas, actor well known for his role as Nick "Carbo" Karadonis in Packed to the Rafters, contestant on Dancing With The Stars 2010;
• Martin Johnston, Australian poet (son of authors George Johnston and Charmain Clift), his work was published by Queensland University Press under title The Sea-Cucumber;
• John McCallum, senior lecturer in theatre at the University of New South Wales, renowned theatre critic, author (brother of Peter McCallum and William McCallum ).
• Sir Robert Madgwick, former Chairman of the ABC, inaugural Vice-Chancellor of University of New England;
• Alexander Francis "Lex" Marinos OAM, Deputy Chairperson of Australia Council, actor, writer, director, host of Late Night Legends on ABC Digital 2;
• Rodney Marks, Comedian, Artist-in-residence at Harvard in 1995, master of comic hoax who has fooled thousands of Australians at corporate events;
• John Moyes, Editor of Sunday Telegraph, author of Scrapiron Flotilla, 1943 (brother of Allan Moyes ;
• David Myles, film, theatre and television director in the UK, USA and Europe for over 25 years, directed Laurence Olivier in The Merchant of Venice and Derek Jacobi in As You Like It, also City Homicide and SBS show Carla Cametti P.D.;
• Chris Noonan, director of the 1995 movie Babe;
• Peter Overton, Television Journalist;
• Ben Oxenbould, actor and comedian, best known for his role in the television series Hey Dad..!;
• Dr Vladimir Pleshakov, American concert pianist, recording artist, founder of Pleshakov Music Centre at Hudson, New York, Doctor of Musical Arts from Stanford;
• Donald Hosie, member of Australia's number 1 mod band The Sets and leader (aka Ace Face) of the Sydney Mods in the early 1980s and later, lead singer/songwriter with popular Sydney band Stupidity (HSC 1976). Killed in a car accident in April 2000
• Gary Hosie, singer and songwriter for Australia's number 1 mod band The Sets. Also, The Mustard Club which released a mumber of now sought after singles in the 1980s (HSC-1977)
• John Polson, actor and film director, founded Tropfest in 1994, the biggest short-film festival in the world, directed Hide and Seek in 2005, currently directing US television series including Flash Forward, Without a Trace, Fringe, The Mentalist, The Good Wife and Happy Town (expelled after Completing Year 7, also attended Glenaeon);
• James Powditch, joint winner of 2005 Blake Prize for Religious Art;
• Howard Sattler, one of the nation's top "shock jocks", presenter of talkback and current affairs programmes for the past 25 years, former Managing Editor of the Independent Newspaper Group, winner of 5 RAWARDS and a finalist on at least 6 other occasions, twice winner of awards at The International Radio festival in New York;
• Dr Lionel Sawkins, Europe-based music conductor, choral director, scholar, editor, in 1996 named by the French Minister of Culture as Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of diffusing French music "dans le monde" (throughout the world);
• Geoff Sirmai, writer, publicist, performer, comedian, consumer advocate and broadcaster, known as the 'consumer watchdog', author of best-selling guide The Confident Consumer;
• Greedy Smith, keyboardist/vocalist with Mental As Anything, has been an entertainer in Australia for over 20 years. Born Andrew McArthur Smith.
• Stephen Ure, actor, cast by director Peter Jackson for the role of the grisly Orc captain Grishnákh in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, also Gorbag in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King;
• Nathan Waks, Cellist in Sydney Symphony Orchestra, former Director of Music at ABC, composer of score for My Brilliant Career;
• Justin Way, one of the Directors of Royal Opera House, Covent Garden;
• Ormsby Wilkins, Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the American Ballet Theatre;
• Dr John Knight AM better known as Dr James Wright, one of Australia's first celebrity doctors, radio presenter, columnist, bestselling author and philanthropist with aged accommodation