Colin Friels

Colin Friels (born 25 September 1952) is a Scottish-born Australian actor.

Background and training

Friels was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland.Interview with Colin Friels, George Negus Tonight (ABC Television), 26 August 2004. http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/profiles/Transcripts/s1186644.htm, retrieved May 2007. His mother was a mill worker and his father a joiner. He lived in Kilbirnie until 1963, when his family moved to Australia, arriving in Darwin, Northern Territory before settling in the Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows. He worked as a bricklayer's labourer before studying at the prestigious National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), alongside actors such as Mel Gibson, and his future wife Judy Davis. Friels graduated from NIDA in 1976.

Acting career

Friels career began with work mostly in theatre and television. In 1980 Friels was a presenter on the long-running children's series Play School. His first film role was in the unreleased Prisoners (1981), starring with Tatum O'Neal. The film was allegedly so bad that Tatum's father Ryan O'Neal purchased the rights to the film to prevent it from ever screening. His first actual appearance in film was in Monkey Grip (1982), an adaptation of a novel by Helen Garner, where he starred alongside Noni Hazlehurst.

In 1986, he played the title role in Malcolm, about a shy mechanical genius, for which he was awarded the 1986 AFI Award for Best Actor....
Read More