
Hugh Keays-Byrne
Actor · 1947 – 2020 · Kashmir, India
Hugh Keays-Byrne (May 18, 1947 – December 2, 2020) was a British-Australian actor and film director. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was best known for playing the main antagonist in two films from the Mad Max franchise: Toecutter in Mad Max (1979), and Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He also played Toad in the 1974 biker film Stone, and Grunchlk on the science fiction series Farscape. Keays-Byrne was born in Srinagar, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (part of the British Raj then, India now) to British parents; his family returned to Britain when India was partitioned. He began his career as a stage actor. Keays-Byrne made his first television appearance in 1967 on the British television programme Boy Meets Girl. He was part of Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which toured Australia in 1973. Keays-Byrne decided to remain in Australia after the tour ended. In 1974, he acted in the TV movie Essington, then made his first film appearance in the motorcycle picture Stone (1974). This was followed by supporting roles in films like The Man from Hong Kong (1975), Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The Trespassers (1976) and Snapshot (1979). After his first starring role in the 1978 TV movie Death Train, Keays-Byrne was cast as the violent gang leader Toecutter in Mad Max (1979). Director George Miller had Keays-Byrne and the other actors for the gang travel from Sydney to Melbourne in a group on motorcycles, as there was no money for airplane tickets. In an early international print of the film, Keays-Byrne was dubbed with a bad American accent, which Miller later regretted. Keays-Byrne then continued to act in post-apocalyptic and science fiction films like The Chain Reaction (1980), Strikebound (1984), Starship (1985) and The Blood of Heroes (1989). In 1992, he made his directorial debut and acted in the film Resistance. He also appeared in TV miniseries adaptations of Moby Dick (1998) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1999). Keays-Byrne played Grunchlk in the science fiction television series Farscape (1999–2003) and its conclusion Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004). George Miller also cast him as the Martian Manhunter in the planned 2009 movie Justice League: Mortal. Keays-Byrne returned to the Mad Max franchise in the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road as the main villain Immortan Joe. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning 6, and Keays-Byrne was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. Description above from the Wikipedia article Hugh Keays-Byrne, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies24
Movie7.6ActionAdventureAn apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
Mad Max: Fury Road
2015 · 24K votes
Movie6.7ActionThrillerIn the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.
Mad Max
1979 · 5.1K votes
Movie5.4DramaRomanceA haunting erotic fairytale about Lucy, a young University student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of beauty and desire.
Sleeping Beauty
2011 · 700 votes
Movie5.8ActionAdventureSet in a futuristic world where the only sport that has survived in a wasted society is the brutal game known as jugging. Sallow, the leader of a rag-tag team, has played in the main Leagues before, but was cast out because of indiscretions with a lady. Now joined by a talented newcomer, Kidda, an ambitious young peasant girl, he and his team find they have one last chance for glory.
The Blood of Heroes
1989 · 166 votes
Movie6.6ActionCrimeAustralian authorities arrest a man believed to be connected to the Sydney criminal underworld and send for Inspector Fang Sing Leng from Hong Kong to question him. After the alleged criminal is assassinated, Inspector Leng and the Sydney police try to hunt down those responsible and hope to solve their case along the way.
The Man from Hong Kong
1975 · 61 votes
Movie6.0ComedyMysteryThe escapades of Ginger Meggs, local larrikin. He's trying to win the heart of Minnie Peters, but the pressures of school, his rival Eddie Coogan and bully Tiger Kelly make life tough for him. Besides, there's fishing to be done.
Ginger Meggs
1982 · 4 votes
Movie5.1HistoryAdventureA story based on true events about two explorers on a doomed journey trying to cross Australia on foot in the 19 century.
Burke & Wills
1985 · 9 votes
Movie6.8DocumentaryEmerging from the depths of the film industry, the Mad Max saga became an instant cult classic after the release of the first film in 1979. These five critically acclaimed films have continued to captivate audiences. They shaped the identity of Australian cinema, launched a movie star – Mel Gibson – and propelled George Miller as one of the greatest directors of his generation. Above all, Mad Max has left an indelible mark on our collective unconscious, redefining our vision of the apocalypse and human civilization. This documentary tells the story of this phenomenon, from the small production of the first film to the monumental later installments, drawing on interviews and rare archives.
Movie6.9DramaThe Australian Aborigines (in this film anyway) believe that this is the place where the green ants go to dream, and that if their dreams are disturbed, it will bring down disaster on us all. The Aborigines' belief is not shared by a giant mining company, which wants to tear open the soil and search for uranium.
Movie6.0ActionCrimeAfter one of its members witnesses a political assassination, an outlaw motorbike gang becomes the target of a string of murders, prompting a cop to join their ranks to determine who is responsible.
Stone
1974 · 42 votes
Movie3.8Science FictionJowitt, a mercenary without recluse institutes a totalitarian regime in a small mining city of an arid planet, Ordessa, helped in that by androids incapable of any emotion. The young Lorca and his android professor, Kid, are both in this tended situation. To find the liberty, they must at any costs seize a spaceship, the "Red Star", but they quickly have to face an android killer...
Movie6.0TV MovieScience FictionIn 1995, a severe drought forced Americans to flee the West for the cities. Water became more precious than gold. Now in 2005, settlers are coming back, meeting new challenges, and age-old adversaries. A U.S. Marshal and his cyborg partner patrol the American West. A hard-as-nails female boss heads two U.S. Marshals (one human, one bionic) in Badlands 2005, a concept where the near future sees water as a more precious commodity than gold. The West of America has been deserted after droughts a decade earlier, and now a re-population program is underway.
Badlands 2005
1988 · 3 votes
Movie5.9ActionCrimeThe true story of Irish outlaw Daniel Morgan, who is wanted, dead or alive, in Australia during the 1850s.
Mad Dog Morgan
1976 · 50 votes
Movie4.8ComedyFat middle aged 24/7 drunkard Les Patterson represents Australia at the UN where his fart literally incinerates an Arab ambassador. Patterson is reassigned to the Middle East so he can be tortured to death by the country he insulted. Patterson's arrival is the prefect distract of a coup and he is spared. At a bar Patterson meets a bio weapons scientist who's developed a horrific disease for the KGB whom plan to distribute it to the Pentagon via toilet seats. Patterson of course is far too drunk to understand anything happening and teams up with Dane Edna to save the world.
Les Patterson Saves the World
1987 · 16 votes
Movie6.9DocumentaryFor 20 years director George Miller fought to unleash the ultimate Mad Max movie - Mad Max: Fury Road. Witness George's journey from the dream of a female warrior to the harsh plains of the Namibian desert to statues of gold in Hollywood, California.
Going Mad: The Battle of Fury Road
2017 · 13 votes
Movie7.2DocumentaryThe Madness of Max is a feature-length documentary on the making of arguably the most influential movie of the past thirty years. With over forty cast-and-crew interviews, hundreds of behind-the-scenes photographs and never-before-seen film footage of the shoot, this is without a doubt the last word on Mad Max (1979).Interviews include: George Miller, Byron Kennedy, Mel Gibson, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Roger Ward, Joanne Samuel, David Eggby, Jon Dowding and many more. From the Producers to the Bike Designers to the Traffic Stoppers, this is the story of how Mad Max was made.
The Madness of Max
2015 · 10 votes
Movie6.2AdventureComedyBarnaby and Me is a 1978 Australian TV movie about a girl and her talking koala who are pursued by criminals.
Barnaby and Me
1977 · 3 votes
Movie5.5ThrillerHorrorA young hairdresser enters into the modeling world while fearing retaliation from her puritanical mother and stalker ex-boyfriend.
Snapshot
1979 · 22 votes
Movie5.5ActionScience FictionContaminated by a nuclear-plant spill, an Australian worker hides with a woman and tries to warn the public.
The Chain Reaction
1980 · 60 votes
Movie5.0DramaOn 9th of November 1983 two Australians, Kevin Barlow and Geoff Chambers were arrested at Penang Airport in Malaysia carrying 179 grams of Heroin. A crime which in Malaysia carries a mandatory sentence of death... Dadah Is Death (A Long Way From Home) is the true story of Barbara Barlow's desperate attempt to save her son from the Hangmans rope - a courageous effort that involved impassioned pleas to President Reagan, The British Prime Minister, and even the Pope. By July 1986 this international struggle had seemed to reach a hopeless conclusion and all that was left was a mother's love for her son.
Dadah Is Death
1988 · 3 votes
Movie7.0FamilyAnimationYoung Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of the buried treasure of the buccaneer Captain Flint, in this adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Treasure Island
1987 · 2 votes
Movie6.4DramaFamilyBased on the children's novel by celebrated South Australian author 'Colin Thiele' , this is an emotional father and son story about tuna fishing of Southern Blue Fin tuna in South Australia's Port Lincoln fishing district. Accident prone son Snook is forever making mistakes much to the chagrin of his father Pascoe. But when tragedy strikes the fishing boat during a deep sea fishing trek in the Southern Ocean, the boy is called on to become a man in a rites of sea passage to reconcile is past mishaps and save both his father and the ship from certain disaster.
Blue Fin
1978 · 7 votes
Movie6.1DramaHistoryVia the New York Times: "...reconstructs the true story of a coal miners' strike in the small town of Korumburra in the mid-30's... based on the real-life story of two remarkable characters, Wattie Doig, a miner who became a militant Communist activist, and his wife, Agnes, who progressed from staunch Presbyterianism to membership in the Salvation Army and, finally, to labor organization."
Strikebound
1984 · 6 votes
Movie3.7RomanceDramaTeresa is a spirited young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of 1930s society, and her father in particular. She fancies her poverty-stricken Latin tutor Johnathan Crow, without realising he merely considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, and eventually follows him from Sydney to London. En route she meets the gentle banker James Quick. Whilst navigating her relationships in London, including with a political poet bound for the Spanish Civil War, she experiences a transformation in her understanding of love. Based upon Christina Stead's best-selling Australian novel.
For Love Alone
1986 · 10 votes
Series5
TV7.9Sci-Fi & FantasyAction & AdventureA freak accident during an experimental space mission catapults Astronaut John Crichton across a thousand galaxies to an alien battlefield.
Farscape
1999 · 631 votes
TV5.9DramaAction & AdventureThe sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
Moby Dick
1998 · 66 votes
TVDramaComedyAnthology series of love stories.
Boy Meets Girl
1967
TV7.7Action & AdventureSci-Fi & FantasyWhen a full-scale war is engaged by the evil Scarran Empire, the Peacekeeper Alliance has but one hope: reassemble human astronaut John Crichton.
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
2004 · 84 votes
TV5.9Sci-Fi & FantasyRemake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disappeared.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
1999 · 52 votes