Biography
Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own claims, even though reference sources cite 1922 as his year of birth. He attended St Virgil's College. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force on 7 April 1941 and was discharged on 17 March 1944 at the rank of corporal.
After the war he worked as an actor on stage and radio throughout Australia and in Japan. He then moved to England where he produced and co-wrote a film, Ha'penny Breeze (1950). He continued to act with small roles in such films as The Planter's Wife (1952) and The Cruel Sea (1953). He also played the character Stephen "Mitch" Mitchell in the 1953 British science fiction radio series, Journey into Space, but began to turn increasingly to writing and directing.
Sharp directed the first British rock 'n' roll movie, The Golden Disc (1958), released a year before the Cliff Richard vehicle Expresso Bongo (1959) and a full two years ahead of Beat Girl (1960). In Psychomania (1971), Sharp creates a visual fugue by riffing on the great themes of the counter-culture era: bikers, standing stones and ritual magic.
Among his other credits are Curse of the Fly, the spy-comedy Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), the fantasy Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967) and the 1978 remake of The Thirty Nine Steps, starring Robert Powell. He made another foray into spy culture with his feature-length reprise of the gritty Cold War TV drama, Callan (1974) starring Edward Woodward.
Sharp died on 14 December 2011, after a short spell in hospital. He was survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.
Read more about this topic: Don Sharp
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