George Spartels | |
---|---|
Born | George Bernard Spartels 25 April 1954 Australia |
Occupations |
|
George Bernard Spartels (born 25 April 1954) is an Australian actor, presenter, director, playwright and children's musician of Greek descent on his father's ancestry, and English and Irish on his mother's. He remains best known for his role on the television soap opera Neighbours . [1]
Spartels has guest starred in many Australian television series from the 1970s to the present, most notably, Prisoner and Bellbird and in Neighbours playing family patriarch Benito Alessi. He has also appeared in a number of episodes of medical drama series All Saints and serial Packed to the Rafters as Carbo's father.
Other roles included Cop Shop , Punishment and The Bluestone Boys , as well as Blackfinger in the movie Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome in 1985, alongside Mel Gibson and Tina Turner.
Spartels was also a children's television presenter, having had a long tenure on ABC's Play School , over a period of 14 years between 1985 and 1999. [2] [3] [4] [5]
In 2014, Spartels toured Canada, LA and Australia in "The Last Confession" with David Suchet. [6]
Spartels' photoportrait, by Ivan Gaal, is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery. [7]
Spartels was previously married to Sue Spartels, followed by actress Elizabeth Alexander; married, in April 2013, to Mary Spartels and resided in Sydney, Australia. Divorced from Mary in 2017, he returned to Melbourne and commutes.
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1978 | Blue Fin | Con | Feature film |
1985 | Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome | Blackfinger | Feature film |
1988 | Computer Ghosts | Pi Wratich | TV movie |
1989 | Action Replay | TV movie | |
1992 | Seeing Red | Mark | Feature film |
1999 | Kick | Jack Grant | Feature film |
2023 | The Adventures of Wolfdogg and Redridinghood | Narrator | Short film |
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1971-75 | Matlock Police | Danny Porter, Willie Bennett, Walters, Frank Clark, Bob | TV series, 5 episodes |
1972-75 | Division 4 | Harry, Terry Hughes, Gino Napoli, Youth1 | TV series, 4 episodes |
1971-76 | Homicide | John Smith, Russell Knight, Simon Littlewood, Nick Pappas, Peter Fletcher, Anton Palades, Mechanic | TV series, 7 episodes |
1974 | This Love Affair | TV series, 1 episode | |
1976 | Solo One | Harry Thomas | TV series, 1 episode |
Bellbird | TV series | ||
1976 | The Bluestone Boys | TV series | |
1976-77 | Bluey | Steve Berry, Wilson | TV series, 2 episodes |
1977 | Bobby Dazzler | George | TV series, 3 episodes |
1977 | Hotel Story | TV series | |
1978 | Father, Dear Father in Australia | George | TV series, 1 episode |
1978-89 | Cop Shop | Claudio Gustino, Chris Murray, Fergus | TV series, 3 episodes |
1979 | Chopper Squad | Man in hang glider | TV series, 1 episode |
1979-80 | Prisoner | Herbie | TV series, 5 episodes |
1981 | Punishment | David ‘Robbo’ Roberts | TV series |
1984 | Sweet and Sour | Nick Poulopolous | TV series, 18 episodes |
1985-99 | Play School | Presenter | TV series |
1986 | The Great Bookie Robbery | Jaffa Davis | TV miniseries, 3 episodes |
1990 | Rafferty's Rules | Stefan Bosnjack | TV series, 1 episode |
1991 | All Together Now | Georgie Leonard | TV series, 1 episode |
1992-93 | Neighbours | Benito Alessi | TV series, 47 episodes |
1997 | Fallen Angels | Dan Playhard | TV series, 1 episode |
2002-06 | All Saints | The Professor, Craig Watts, Peter Talbot | TV series, 3 episodes |
2009 | City Homicide | Frank Scarsdale | TV series, 1 episode |
2009-12 | Packed to the Rafters | Theo Karandonis, Carbo's father | TV series, 4 episodes |
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1971 | Godspell | Playbox Theatre | |
1981-82 | Chicago | Amos Hart | Sydney Opera House's Drama Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company, Theatre Royal, Comedy Theatre, Festival Theatre, Hong Kong Arts Festival |
1989 | Greek Tragedy | Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre |
Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1993 | George from Play School | Best Children's Album | Nominated |
1998 | Let's Go Out | Nominated | |
2001 | George Meets The Orchestra | Nominated |
Bellbird is an Australian soap opera serial broadcast by the ABC set in the small fictional Victorian rural township of the show's title. The series was produced at the networks Ripponlea TV studios in Elsternwick, Melbourne. The opening title sequence was filmed at Daylesford, Victoria.
Donald Richard Spencer, is an Australian children's television presenter, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He had a long-running role on Play School on both the Australian version (1968–99) and the United Kingdom version (1972–88), one of only two presenters to work on both versions.
Raymond George Martin AM is an Australian television journalist and entertainment personality. Having won the Gold Logie five times, he is the most awarded star of Australian television, along with Graham Kennedy.
Clare Ellen O'Neil is an Australian politician who is the Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security, since 2022. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2013, representing the Victorian seat of Hotham.
Play School is an Australian educational television show for children produced by the educational department of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), based on the original British version created by Joy Whitby, with many of the presenters former school teachers, whilst others being a mix of well known stage and screen actors and musicians. It is the longest-running children's show in Australia and the second-longest-running children's show worldwide after British series Blue Peter.
Benito Alessi is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by George Spartels. Benito was introduced along with his wife and two sons, following the announcement of several cast departures. Spartels was glad to bring something different to the show as part of the first ethnic family. He thought the introduction of the Alessis showed viewers "a broader picture" of Australia, after the show was criticised for not accurately representing suburban life. He made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 28 July 1992.
Waleed Aly is an Australian television presenter, journalist, academic, and lawyer.
The year 1999 in Australian television involved many events.
Oriel Holland Bennett known by pen name Oriel Gray, was an Australian dramatist, playwright and screenwriter who wrote from the 1940s to 1990s. The major themes of her work were gender equality and "social and political issues such as the environment, Aborigines, assimilation and bush life".
Takaya Honda is an actor and television presenter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Josh in the children's television series A gURLs wURLd, Klaus Thomson in the comedy series The Family Law and David Tanaka in Neighbours. Honda has also presented episodes of My Great Big Adventure and Play School.
Polly Borland is an Australian photographer who formerly resided in England from 1989 to 2011, and now lives in Los Angeles, United States. She is known both for her editorial portraits and for her work as a photographic artist.
Ponch Hawkes is an Australian photographer whose work explores intergenerational relationships, queer identity and LGBTQI+ rights, the female body, masculinity, and women at work, capturing key moments in Australia's cultural and social histories.
Susan Janet Carland is an Australian academic, author and television presenter best known for her ongoing media presence speaking on her academic speciality of women in Islam.
Andrew Probyn is an Australian journalist and television presenter known for his role at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Jeannine Baker is an Australian historian. She specialises in women's, labour and media history and is a research fellow at Macquarie University, Sydney.
Jacqueline Mitelman is an Australian portrait photographer.
Geoff Paine is an Australian television and theatre actor from Melbourne. After graduating from drama school Paine secured a role on the soap opera Neighbours, playing the role of doctor Clive Gibbons. He remained in the role for one year before leaving to pursue other projects. He returned to the role briefly in 1989, with the opportunity to appear in a spin-off series based on the character, but no television network would produce the show. Paine continued his career with roles in A Country Practice and the comedy sketch show The Comedy Company. He also concentrated on his stage career gaining roles in productions that toured Australia, including various projects at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Hoda Afshar is an Iranian documentary photographer who is based in Melbourne. She is known for her 2018 prize-winning portrait of Kurdish-Iranian refugee Behrouz Boochani, who suffered a long imprisonment in the Manus Island detention centre run by the Australian government. Her work has been featured in many exhibitions and is held in many permanent collections across Australia.
Mickie de Stoop is an Australian former radio and television presenter.