Remembering Terry Norris: the Australian actor who charmed in dozens of roles
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Loading... - Claire Lavigne
- 22 Mar 2023
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Terry Norris was one of those Australian actors who, like Bud Tingwell, seemed to many of us perennially old – as if he entered the zeitgeist already brilliantly matured. The opposite is true: the veteran performer, who passed away this week aged 92, spent decades refining his craft, beginning his career in television in the 60s. Norris’ earlier work includes Australian productions that were popular in their time but have faded in the zeitgeist – such as the 70s police drama Cop Shop and the rural soap opera Bellbird. Norris is survived by his three children and his wife, the great Australian actor Julia Blake.
Accruing dozens of screen credits over many years, Norris played many small or small-ish parts. But his impact was large, and he made his scenes resonate. And he kept busy: the actor told TV Tonight in 2018 that he had “20 years with the longest run of luck of any actor on the face of the Earth” and “was never, ever out of work”. In 1982, he made a career switch into Victorian state politics, where he remained for a decade, becoming the Labor member for Noble Park then later Dandenong. Former Labor politician Martin Foley tweeted that Norris was “a great mentor to all those who followed him” and his death was “a sad loss”.
Norris’ most memorable role in recent years was as an adorably crusty barfly in the Jack Irish TV movies and series, playing one of a small group that Guy Pearce’s titular gumshoe affectionately refers to as “the Fitzroy youth club”. These blokes drink beer, grumble, and watch footy. By the third and final Jack Irish season, Norris’s character, Eric, has been relocated to a nursing home but remains in fine form, kvetching about a favourite topic: how their local watering hole has gone to the dogs. “I heard they got kombucha on tap!” he exclaims, describing it as “just bloody bacteria” and asking what’s next: “salmonella on a petri dish?” Read More…
