Hugh Keays-Byrne

Actor

May 18, 1947 (73 years)

† December 2, 2020

Kashmir, India

Biography

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 t…

Filmography

7.9

Farscape

Grunchlk

A freak accident during an experimental space mission catapults Astronaut John Crichton across a thousand galaxies to an alien battlefield.

7.6

Mad Max: Fury Road

Immortan Joe

An 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.

6.7

Mad Max

Toecutter

In 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.

5.4

Sleeping Beauty

Man 3

A haunting erotic fairytale about Lucy, a young University student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of beauty and desire.

6.0

Moby Dick

Mr. Stubb

The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.

7.7

Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

Grunchlk

When a full-scale war is engaged by the evil Scarran Empire, the Peacekeeper Alliance has but one hope: reassemble human astronaut John Crichton.

5.9

The Blood of Heroes

Lord Vlle

Set 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.

5.9

Journey to the Center of the Earth

McNiff

Remake 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.

6.7

The Man from Hong Kong

Morrie Grosse

Australian 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.

6.4

Blue Fin

Stan

Based 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.

6.8

It’s a Mad Max World

Self

Emerging 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.

5.0

Dadah Is Death

Hammed

On 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.

5.9

Mad Dog Morgan

Simon

The true story of Irish outlaw Daniel Morgan, who is wanted, dead or alive, in Australia during the 1850s.

6.0

Stone

Toad

After 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.

3.7

For Love Alone

Andrew

Teresa 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.

6.9

Where the Green Ants Dream

Mining Executive

The 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.

4.4

Going Down

Bottom

Middle-class Karli, alcoholic Jane, unemployed Jackie, and square Ellen are four friends living together and barely scraping by in suburban Sydney. But when Karli’s father offers her a little money and a one-way ticket to New York, she finally sees a way out of her dead-end life—that is, until the money goes missing, kickstarting a final night out on the town that none of them will ever forget.

5.5

The Chain Reaction

Eagle

Contaminated by a nuclear-plant spill, an Australian worker hides with a woman and tries to warn the public.

4.0

Lorca and the Outlaws

Danny

Jowitt, 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...

5.1

Burke & Wills

Ambrose Kyte

A story based on true events about two explorers on a doomed journey trying to cross Australia on foot in the 19 century.