Tim Burstall

Timothy Burstall AM (20 April 1927 – 19 April 2004) was an English Australian film director, writer and producer, best known for hit Australian movie Alvin Purple (1973) and its sequel Alvin Rides Again. A key figure in Australian postwar cinema, Burstall was instrumental in rebuilding the Australian film industry at a time when it had been effectively dead for over a decade. He created groundbreaking Australian films including Stork, End Play, Eliza Fraser, The Last of the Knucklemen and the 1987 adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence novel Kangaroo. Burstall's films featured early appearances by many legendary Australian actors including Jack Thompson, Bruce Spence, Jacki Weaver, Alvin star Graeme Blundell, John Waters and Judy Davis. Burstall's wife, Betty Burstall, an important figure in her own right, founded the pioneering La Mama Theatre in Melbourne in the late 1960s, with which Tim was involved. Speaking just after Burstall's death, David Williamson said that Burstall "couldn't stomach" Australia's lack of a film industry. "He was determined to do something about it and he had the energy and spirit to do it. (He) was a very important cultural figure: highly intelligent, widely read, with a succinct and often highly controversial opinion on everything."