The Thorn Birds | |
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Genre | Drama Romance |
Written by | Carmen Culver Lee Stanley Colleen McCullough (novel) |
Directed by | Daryl Duke |
Starring | |
Theme music composer | Henry Mancini |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 4 |
Production | |
Executive producers | |
Producers |
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Production locations |
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Cinematography | Bill Butler |
Editors |
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Running time | 467 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | March 27 – March 30, 1983 |
Related | |
The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years (1996) |
The Thorn Birds is an American television miniseries broadcast on ABC from March 27 to 30, 1983. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Piper Laurie, Jean Simmons, Richard Kiley, Bryan Brown, Mare Winningham and Philip Anglim. It was directed by Daryl Duke and based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Colleen McCullough. The series was enormously successful.
The series centres around the lives of the Cleary family from the 1920s until the 1960s, who are brought from New Zealand to the Australian outback to help run the ranch of their aunt Mary Carson, and the forbidden love between Meggie Cleary and the family's priest, Father Ralph de Briscassart.
Actor | Role |
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Starring | |
Richard Chamberlain | Father Ralph de Bricassart |
Rachel Ward | Meghan "Meggie" Cleary |
Jean Simmons | Fiona "Fee" Cleary |
Ken Howard | Rainer Hartheim |
Mare Winningham | Justine "Jussy" O'Neill |
Piper Laurie | Anne Mueller |
Richard Kiley | Padraic "Paddy" Cleary |
Earl Holliman | Luddie Mueller |
Bryan Brown | Luke O'Neill |
Philip Anglim | Dane O'Neill |
Special guest appearance | |
Christopher Plummer | Archbishop Vittorio di Contini-Verchese |
Barbara Stanwyck | Mary Carson |
Also starring | |
John Friedrich | Frank Cleary |
Allyn Ann McLerie | Mrs. Smith |
Richard Venture | Harry Gough |
Stephanie Faracy | Judy Sutton |
Barry Corbin | Pete |
Sydney Penny | Young Meggie Cleary |
Stephen Burns | Jack Cleary |
Brett Cullen | Bob Cleary |
Co-starring | |
Antoinette Bower | Sarah MacQueen |
Dwier Brown | Stuart "Stuie" Cleary |
John de Lancie | Alastair MacQueen |
Bill Morey | Angus MacQueen |
Vidal Peterson | Young Stuie Cleary |
Holly Palance | Miss Carmichael |
Meg Wyllie | Annie |
Wally Dalton | Fair Barker |
Nan Martin | Sister Agatha |
Chard Hayward | Arne Swenson |
Rance Howard | Doc Wilson |
Lucinda Dooling | Martha |
Aspa Nakopolou | Phaedre |
The novel was originally developed as a feature film with Ed Lewis attached to produce. Ivan Moffat wrote an early draft of the script. Herbert Ross was the first director, and he saw Christopher Reeve about playing the lead. Then Peter Weir became attached to direct; Robert Redford was the favourite to play the lead. Eventually Weir dropped out and Arthur Hiller was going to direct; Ryan O'Neal was mooted as a star. Eventually it was decided to turn it into a mini series. [1] [2]
The role of Meggie Cleary became the most sought after role of the production, and was considered the role of a lifetime. Many actresses campaigned and auditioned for the role over a long period of pre-production. British actress Lynne Frederick was one of many actresses who heavily campaigned for the role. Frederick even dyed her hair red to showcase herself. Other actresses who auditioned for the part included Michelle Pfeiffer, Jane Seymour, Olivia Newton-John, and Kim Basinger.
The Thorn Birds was released on VHS in 1991 in the US and Canada; it was re-released on DVD in the US and Canada on February 3, 2004. Both editions were given a "Not Rated" certification. It is rated PG in New Zealand for violence, sexual references, coarse language and nudity.
A followup titled The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years was broadcast by CBS in 1996. It tells the story of the 19 years unaccounted for in the original miniseries.
Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film and television actress. She has had a number of high-profile roles, including in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, the leading actress in the films Altered States (1980), Continental Divide (1981) and Strapless (1989), as well as a run as the title character in the comedy-drama television series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, which ran from 1987 to 1991. Her later roles include Nina Sharp on the Fox television series Fringe and Judy King on the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black.
The Thorn Birds is a 1977 novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough. Set primarily on Drogheda—a fictional sheep station in the Australian Outback named after Drogheda, Ireland—the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans 1915 to 1969. The novel is the best-selling book in Australian history, and has sold over 33 million copies worldwide.
Rachel Claire Ward is an English-Australian actress, film director, screenwriter and television director.
Philip Charles Anglim is an American actor. He is best known for his performance as Joseph Merrick in the stage and television versions of The Elephant Man, a role for which he received a Best Actor nomination in the 1979 Tony Awards. Other notable roles include the title role in Macbeth on Broadway and Dane O'Neill, the ill-fated love child who grew up to follow in his unknown father's footsteps on the path to the priesthood in the television mini-series The Thorn Birds. He also had a recurring guest role as the Bajoran priest Vedek Bareil on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Sydney Margaret Penny is an American actress. She began her career as a child performer appearing in made-for-television movies. She made her big screen debut in the Western film Pale Rider directed by Clint Eastwood. She received total six Young Artist Awards nominations, winning two for playing Young Meggie Cleary in the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1984), and for Pale Rider. Penny also starred in the sitcom The New Gidget (1986–1988), and played Bernadette Soubirous in the French drama film Bernadette (1988) and its sequel The Passion of Bernadette (1990) both directed by Jean Delannoy.
Bryan Neathway Brown AM is an Australian actor and author. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include Breaker Morant (1980), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), F/X (1986), Tai-Pan (1986), Cocktail (1988), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), F/X2 (1991), Along Came Polly (2004), Australia (2008), Kill Me Three Times (2014) and Gods of Egypt (2016). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his performance in the television miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).
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Mary Megan Winningham, known professionally as Mare Winningham, is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Tony Awards.
Crawford Productions is an Australian media production company, focused on radio and television production. Founded in Melbourne by Hector Crawford and his sister, actress and voice artist Dorothy Crawford, the company, also known as Crawfords Australia, is now a subsidiary of the WIN Corporation.
The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years is a 1996 CBS miniseries directed by Kevin James Dobson. Adapted from the 1977 novel The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough, it tells the story of the nineteen years between Dane's birth and Ralph's return to Australia. These years are unaccounted for in both the original 1983 ABC miniseries and the novel.
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