Although he didn’t have humongous fame in America like fellow Aussies Nicole Kidman or Geoffrey Rush (Mel Gibson is a transplant like AC/DC), Bill was a distinctive presence in his nation’s hit movies. The majority of the world will always remember him as the dentist in Finding Nemo but you’d probably recognize him as the corrupt official of Strictly Ballroom, the nogoodnik politician dad of Muriel’s Wedding or the mechanic who travels with the drag queens in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. You could say he was the Brian Dennehy of Oz.
My own personal anecdote about Bill involved a conversation with a real Aussie I encountered in Las Vegas. We were sitting around the Luxor’s hot tub, making small talk and since I recognized the accent I asked where he was from. The man chuckled, replied that (as an American) I wouldn’t know. I said, try me. When his answer was Queensland, I followed up if he was from Brisbane. Impressed a bit, he said no but he came from a nearby area (he was a home builder). I followed up about how disappointed I was that Porpoise Spit didn’t exist in his state; a friend of mine got to visit Australia for three weeks and she checked. However, I drew the most laughter from the nice man by telling him my theory on his nation’s movies…there must be a law saying all films from Australia for American consumption must cast Bill Hunter as I listed everything I had seen, this is to counter Ireland’s requirement with Colm Meany!
More about the man is best covered by this Sydney paper.