Vale Don Reid

The distinguished actor and playwright Don Reid passed away peacefully at 5pm on Tuesday April 9, 2013 after a fall the previous day.

Donald Cameron Reid left Sydney University with a B.A. Dip.Ed. to teach English and History. His first appointment was to Singleton High School. He became very involved in the Singleton Amateur Dramatic Club but returned to Sydney in the late 1950's on the invitation of Doris Fitton, and trained with her and John Alden at the Independent Theatre. Along with other young actors at the time, including Jon Ewing, Reg Livermore, Clarissa Kaye and Lorraine Bayly, he joined classes conducted by Hayes Gordon, learning principles of acting derived from the great Russian, Constantin Stanislavsky via the Actors Studio, New York. With Hayes as their leader this group became the original Ensemble Theatre Company. Don was a permanent member of the Ensemble Company for 25 years, performing in, or directing, well over 30 productions including (as actor) The Physicists, Enemy Of The People, Savagesand Shadow Of A Gunman; (as director) The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail, Philadelphia Here I Come and The Ballad Of Billy Lane. Since 1984 Don has performed for all the major theatre companies across Australia, and several commercial managements, including, for the Sydney Theatre Company, in Shadowlands, Six Degrees Of Separation, The Crucible, Phédre; for Company B in The Seagull and The Birthday Party; for Marian Street Theatre in Duet For One (with Helen Morse); for Western Australian Theatre Company in Glengarry Glen Ross and for Gordon Frost Organisation in South Pacific and Hello Dolly. He has enjoyed extensive work in television from Skippy to All Saints, in film from Phar Lap to Moulin Rouge and in radio, recording numerous plays for the ABC, and as presenter of the schools program The World We Live In for many years. The feature film Men’s Group in which he appeared, won the IF Award for Best Film and Best Script in 2008. Other stage appearances include playing Samuel Beckett in Justin Fleming’s Burnt Piano for the Ensemble, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for B Sharp at Downstairs Belvoir.

In 1993, to much critical acclaim, Don wrote and performed at Wharf 2, his one-man play, A Whimsical Fellow, based on the life of Australian lyric poet, John Shaw Neilson. In August 2005 his play, Navigating Flinders about the great navigator of the same name, premiered with a six-week season at the Ensemble Theatre. His play Codgers had its world premiere at Riverside Theatres in August 2008 and went on to sell-out seasons during the subsequent NSW regional tour and then national tour in 2010. The film version of Codgers was released in 2011. The companion piece to Codgers, Biddies, made a successful national tour in 2012.

Don received two Glugs’ Taffy Davies Memorial Awards for Best New Australian work for Codgers and for Navigating Flinders, as well as the Seaborn Broughton and Walford Glugs Life Achievement Award. For the Short Film Boo, directed by Rupert Reid, Don received the Best Actor Award at Tropfest in 2012. His final stage performance was in December 2012 as old-school class warrior Derrick in The Greening of Grace at the Darlinghurst Theatre, and his performance was acclaimed by the Sydney Morning Herald. Don's final performance on screen is in the short film Heaven. The film is now dedicated to Don.

A farewell celebration for Don Reid will be held on Tuesday April 16, 2013 at 11.30am at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta.

Images: Don Reid, Nicole Kidman and John Polsonat  TROPFEST in February 2012 and Don Reid.