Ronald Falk(KEITH “sar major” WESTON) began his career in Australia at the Melbourne's Union Theatre with Monica Maughan and Barry Humphries, followed by ten years in England at the Old Vic, the Royal Court and the RSC. His more recent Australian credits include Inheritance for the STC/MTC and Weary Dunlop in Weary. His film credits include My First Wife and Evil Angels and in television A Country Practice, The Flying Doctors, Carson's Law and The Damnation Of Harvey McHugh. Ronald broadcast for twenty years with the ABC Radio's The Science Show and has received awards for his performances in Rough Crossing (Gary Penny/SATC) and Nicholas Nickleby (STC). He has just completed a reprise of his acclaimed performance as Weary Dunlop in Weary Dunlop and the Thai/Burma Railway for a Victorian regional tour and will soon be seen in the upcoming film Red Hill, set in Victoria’s high country. Ronald reckons he has been playing old men since he was 21. Now, as a ‘codger’ he doesn’t need make-up anymore!
Ron Haddrick(JIMMY McMURTRIE, the jokester) made his first appearance on the stage at the Tivoli Adelaide in 1946. Later, Ron was invited to join the Stratford Memorial Theatre (now the RSC). Upon his return to Sydney, there followed roles with the Trust Players, and when the Old Tote Theatre Company formed, Ron played in over forty productions. Other stage work in the '70s and ‘80s included major roles for STC, STCSA and QTC in classics and new Australian plays including extensive seasons of Nimrod’s TheClub. Ron received Sydney Critics Circle Awards for his performances in Long Day's Journey Into Night and I'm Not Rappaport. The ‘90s saw him in many roles for Marian Street Theatre and the STC including his King Lear, his much loved Wacka Dawson in The One Day of The Year and recently, Beyond The Neck for Performing Lines. Think of an Australian-made television series and Ron’s been in it, from Certain Women to Farscape - and numerous feature films. On radio, Ron has performed in hundreds of dramas, documentaries, special features and is frequently heard reading poetry for the ABC. He was awarded the M.B.E. for his services to the Arts in 1974. He was also a mean cricketer in his youth …
Ron’s not sure when he first became a codger – maybe he’s always been one as he is certainly very comfortable with this role in life!
Edwin Hodgeman(LES, nature’s gentleman) is most noted for his constant presence over the last four decades at State Theatre Company of South Australia – and he’s only a young codger. On Adelaide’s stages and for the MTC, the STC and Nimrod, among others, Edwin has played everything from Shakespeare, Chekhov and Bernard Shaw to Arthur Miller, David Williamson and Dorothy Hewitt with musicals and Gilbert and Sullivan along the way. Some of his many, many productions include Othello (Iago), The Legend of King O’Malley, Jugglers Three, Equus, School for Scandal, Annie Get Your Gun, A Happy and Holy Occasion, The Matchmaker (Horace Vandergelder), A Hard God, A Man For All Seasons, The Three Sisters, The Mikado (Koko), 84 Charing Cross Road, The Time Is Not Yet Ripe, The Merchant Of Venice (Shylock), Tartuffe, The Seagull, The Tempest (Prospero), Big River, Cabaret, Under Milkwood, Me and My Girl, The Venetian Twins and The Wild Duck. In latter days, Cassius in Julius Caesar for QTC, for Bell Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of The Shrew, followed by The Crucible and Death of a Salesman for State and Influence at the STC and recently, in Moliere’s The Hypochondriac for Brink Productions. On film, Edwin is familiar from appearances in Playing Beattie Bow, The Fourth Wish, Mad Max III (Dr Dealgood) and Shine, and more recentlyin Look Both Ways, Lucky Miles and Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueberger. His television work includes such classics as Sun on The Stubble, Robbery Under Arms, True Believers and the recent Rainshadow. Along the way have come several awards including the National Critics Circle Award for Drama, Best Actor in SA by the National Playwrights Convention and, in 2007, the National Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award. What else can one say upon joining the cast of CODGERS other than, “I came. I saw. I wrinkled.”
JonLam (STANLEY CHANG, drycleaner, newcomer) was born in Australia to Chinese parents and spent most of his formative years in New Guinea, speaking neither formal Chinese nor proper English but mostly tokpisin and German – courtesy of a Lutheran and Catholic missionary education. His interest in performing dates from discovering two left feet at Miss Marjorie Robinson’s Tap Dancing School in Maroubra in 1949 but while in Port Moresby he appeared in Cahoots Macbeth and The Players Not the Game with the Moresby Theatre Group. On returning to Australia, he studied acting with Brian Syron and also privately with various tutors. On stage he has appeared in the East Coast Theatre Company's Empress of China for B Sharp and In Sheila's Case for the Short & Sweet festival. Jon has also appeared in the short films Dear Grandfather (Singapore) and Troubled Waters, as well as the features Singapore Sling, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolution and numerous television commercials and corporate videos for the Asian market. Jon enjoys $2.50 train fares to Woy Woy for fish and chips with other like-minded codgers – and he identifies strongly with the role of STANLEY.
Russell Newman (PATRICK GUINESS, family man, proud conservative) had extensive experience as a young actor in British repertory, West End theatre and in South Africa. Returning to Australia in the 70s, he became a stalwart of the QTC, including roles in The Merchant of Venice, St. Joan and King Lear with Warren Mitchell. The 80s saw him in Sydney at the Nimrod theatre in Clowneroonies, Flash Jim Vaux, Stephen Sewell’s Welcome the Bright World and Accidental Death of an Anarchist, as well as All the Black Dogs for Griffin Theatre Company. Then followed appearances for Marian Street Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, Ensemble Theatre, Belvoir and Glen Street Theatre. But it’s from decades of fine acting on television that Russell is most familiar: everything from Rush, Certain Women and The Young Doctors through The Sullivans, Cop Shop, GP, A Country Practice and Heartbreak High to Water Rats, All Saints, Home and Away, Backberner and Underbelly II. Along the way there were the acclaimed ABC series 1915, Edens Lost, Palace of Dreams, Brides of Christ and Joh’s Jury, as well as a regular role in Fireflies and popping up on The Love Boat and in Mission Impossible among many, many other credits. Most recently, he’s been back treading the boards with Magda Szubanski and Garry McDonald as Arvide Abernathy in Guys and Dolls. Russell has come to understand “there’s many a good tune played on an old fiddle”!
Shane Porteous (ROD DEAN, youngster, philosopher) began his career on stage, notably with a long stint at the Old Tote playing classics (Oedipus directed by Tyrone Guthrie) to new works (the original production of Williamson’s What if You Died Tomorrow? which toured to London). His stage work in recent years has been for the Q Theatre, MTC, STC, Marian Street Theatre and Railway Street Theatre; in television on Neighbours, Home and Away, Pizza, Blue Heelers and The Bridge; on the feature length Fat Pizza, plus several short films and documentaries – and all this since his twelve year stint on A Country Practice wrapped in 1993. He has also worked as an animation artist, providing layouts and storyboards for cartoon series such as Popeye, Blinky Bill and the animated feature The Magic Pudding. However, for the last sixteen years his career has centred on writing: initially scripts for A Country Practice and since 1993 for Children's Hospital, All Saints, Home and Away and Neighbours, for which he twice won AWGIES. Shane is involved with the Weatherboard Theatre Company and the Green Room group in the Blue Mountains of NSW, helping to encourage local performance writers. Since 2007 he has been one of the Australian Writers Guild’s representatives on the Mindframe Stage and Screen project, promoting the accurate portrayal of mental health issues in the media. He is a proud member of Equity. Shane claims he’s been a trainee codger for years and is proud he’s finally graduated.
Steady Lads would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution made to the development of CODGERS by the following actors:
Peter Carmody
Peter Collingwood
Michael Craig
Leslie Dayman
Brian Harrison
Peter Gwynne
Graham Rouse
Henri Szeps
Alan Tobin
Martin Vaughan
