Jonathan Hardy


Jonathan Hardy was a New Zealand film and television actor, writer and director, he worked also in Australia.

Early career

Hardy was born in New Zealand in Wellington and began his training at the New Zealand Players' Drama School. He traveled to Britain where studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and was a gold medal student. This brought interest from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre where he secured contracts.
He returned to his home of New Zealand in a touring production of The Comedy of Errors with the Royal Shakespeare Company and remained to help expand the country's theatre industry. He emigrated to Australia in 1972.

Career 1972-2012

Jonathan Hardy had a long and very successful career for over 40 years. He appeared in over 20 films, guested in over 26 television series, acted in many television movies and mini-series.
His preference was to work on stage and had long engagements with major theatre companies in both Melbourne and Sydney.
His roles ranged from a Christmas pantomime of Cinderella, Shakespeare, topical plays such as And in the End : The Life and Death of John Lennon and roles in operas.
Throughout his career worked across all of these mediums at the same time showing his versatility and ability to meet the demand of any roles offered.

Theatre

Hardy was part of the cast in the first public performance of Kenneth G. Ross's important Australian play Breaker Morant, presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company at the Athenaeum Theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on Thursday, 2 February 1978.
In his obituary he is quoted by Mark Juddery as saying,
The actor is in control in the theatre,..., so the theatre is much more an actor's medium.
also,
Television is not anything but an actor's image,... If my image happens to fit, then I do the job. Whereas on stage you can create an illusion, on television … it's pretty cliched.

Film

Hardy's film work included The Devil's Playground which he was nominated for an Australian Film Institute award, Mad Max, Mr. Reliable and Moulin Rouge!.
Along with David Stevens and Bruce Beresford he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Breaker Morant: for which he received an Australian Film Institute award, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
At Mystfest he was the co-winner of Best Artistic Contribution for Scarecrow He also won a New Zealand Film and TV Award in 2001 for Best Short Film Performance for Camping with Camus.
Hardy directed and wrote the movie Backstage starring the Grammy nominated pop vocalist Laura Branigan.
He is best known to international audiences, for providing the voice of Dominar Rygel XVI in the science fiction series Farscape. Farscape was filmed in Australia but was a US production and although it was unsuccessful in Australia, Hardy developed a cult following.

Awards

1993 Matilda Award Winner for performance - Romeo and Juliet, The Shaughraun

Private life

Hardy's partner for over 40 years was actor-director David Letch. They worked on many projects together.

Death

Hardy died, aged 71, at his home in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales on 30 July 2012.

Selected filmography - features

1972 Mandog 5 episodes
1974 Rush 1 episode
1976 Andra 8 episodes
1976 Power Without Glory 3 episodes
1977 Bluey 1 episode
1977 Young Ramsay 1 episode
The Trial of Ned Kelly
1978 The Truckies 1 episode
1978 Against the Wind
1979 The John Sullivan Story
1980-81 ' 3 episodes
1981 Under the Mountain 1 episode
1983 Nearly No Christmas
1984 Heroes 2 episodes
1989 ' 1 episode
1990 The Flying Doctors 1 episode
A Country Practice 1 episode
1992 The Adventures of Skippy 2 episodes
1995 G.P. 1 episode
1995 Mission Top Secret 1 episode
1996 Twisted 1 episode
'
Snowy River: The McGregor Saga 1 episode
Medivac 1 episode
1997 Terrain
1998 All Saints 1 episode
State Coroner 1 episode
2000 Above the Law 1 episode
1999-2003 Farscape Voice of Dominar Rygel XVI 86 episodes
2003 The Secret Life of Us 1 episode
Stingers 1 episode
MDA 2 episodes
2004 ' Voice of Dominar Rygel XVI
2012 Magical Tales 1 episode

Selected acting performances Australia

1972 Flash Jim Vaux ; The Last Supper Show
1973 Jumpers ; The Prisoner Of Second Avenue ; The Plough and the Star ; Batman's Beach-Head ; Paying The Piper ; The Last of the Knucklemen ; Flash Jim Vaux
1974 The Last of the Knucklemen touring production ; Coralie Lansdowne Says No
1977 The Merchant of Venice ; Cop Out
1978 Breaker Morant ; Richard III ; The Beaux' Stratagem ; Fools' Shoe Hotel
1979 The Immortalist ; The Alchemist ; Hamlet ; Cinderella
1980 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ; Hamlet ; Comedians
1991 The Crucible
1992 Shadow and Splendour ; Twelfth Night; Hotel Sorrento
1993 The Beaux Stratagem ; Romeo and Juliet ; The Shaughraun or The Loveable Rascal ; A Christmas Carol
1994 Hysteria, or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Mind ; The Shaughraun ;
1995 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead ; The Shaughraun
1996 The Surgical Table ; Smpatico ; The Life of Galileo ; Coriolanus touring production
1997 Pygmalion ; QTC Oz Shorts 1 ;
2002 Great Expectations
2003 A Tree, Falling
2004 12th Night touring production ; One Flea Spare
2005 Treemonisha narrator ; The Department Store
2006 And in the End : The Life and Death of John Lennon ; Renaissance
2007 Paul

Selected singing performances Australia

1975 The Double Dealer
1976 Don Pasquale
1998 Tannhauser

Selected productions as director/producer Australia

1974 The Importance of Being Earnest Director
1976 The Italian Girl in Algiers Director
1979 The Marriage of Figaro Producer
1980 Nine Little Australians! Season Two Director

Selected productions as playwright/adaptor Australia

1976 The Diary of a Madman also appeared as an actor Adaptor
1997 Jungfrau Writer