John Waters

Acting

John Waters

Born 1948-12-08 · London, England, UK

John Waters (born December 8, 1948) is one of Australia's most recognised and respected film and theatre actors. He was born in London England, the middle of five children of Scottish actor, Russell Waters. As a child John often hung around film studios while dad worked and even starred in a few young parts. He first faced a live audience as a singer and bass player with 60s R & R Band The Riots and appeared in Macbeth before travelling to Australia in 1968 with only a guitar and $90. He soon heard a US film called Adam's Woman, starring Beau Bridges, was being filmed in NSW so he managed to get himself cast in a small role. Fellow cast members recommended he try auditioning for a musical. He did, and landed the lead role of Claude in Sydney's 1969 production of the landmark rock musical, Hair. This was followed by the role of Judas in Godspell. This led to an acting career on stage, film and television that elevated him to his current status as Australia's most versatile leading man. From the brooding Sgt. McKellar Of ABC TV's Rush in 1974 which earned him a Logie Award for Best New Talent, through the Australian film boom that followed with films such as End Play, Summerfield, Breaker Morant, and on to the mini-series of the 80's, All The Rivers Run, Nancy Wake and Alice To Nowhere. Not to be forgotten was his ten year stint as host of childrens ABC program PlaySchool. John has always intrigued audiences with his diversity. Since collecting Australia's highest accolade as the Australian Film Institute's Best Actor Award in 1988 for the film Boulevard of Broken Dreams, John has re-embraced musical theatre as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, and They're Playing Our Song, and in productions of The Hunting of the Snark for Mike Batt, and A Little Night Music for the Sydney Theatre Company. He has also appeared in Love Letters at the Sydney Opera House and Children of a Lesser God. In 1995 he appeared in ReUnion a rock musical written and financed by himself and Stewart D'Arrietta. He won unanimous acclaim in the role of Pontius Pilate in the 1992 concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar with John Farnham, Kate Ceberano, Jon Stevens and Angry Anderson which successfully toured the nation. He has made guest appearances in various TV series, including Good Guys Bad Guys, The Man From Snowy River, All Together Now and Young Lions. John's self written one man show Looking Through a Glass Onion, based on the life of John Lennon, toured nationally and regularly since 1992 and also played six months in London's West End in 1995.

Acting credits

Better Man poster
7.6

Follow Robbie Williams' journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist – all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.

Better Man

2024

Stealth poster
5.5

Deeply ensconced in a top-secret military program, three pilots struggle to bring an artificial intelligence program under control ... before it initiates the next world war.

Stealth

2005

2:22 poster
6.0

Two planes almost collide after a blinding flash of light paralyzes air traffic controller Dylan Branson for a few seconds. Suspended from his job, Dylan starts to notice an ominous pattern of sounds and events that repeats itself in exactly the same manner every day, ending precisely at 2:22 p.m. Also drawn into a complex relationship with a woman, Dylan must figure out a way to break the power of the past and take control of time itself.

2:22

2017

The Rooster poster
5.3

When the body of his oldest friend is found buried in a shallow grave, Dan, a small-town cop, seeks answers from a volatile hermit who was the last person to see his friend alive. As Dan gets closer to the truth, he must confront his own personal demons and he discovers that hope can be found in unlikely places.

The Rooster

2024

Breaker Morant poster
7.1

During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom.

Breaker Morant

1980

End Play poster
6.4

And just when you believe there is nothing more to fear, you will begin to experience the ultimate terror of the END PLAY.

End Play

1976

Attack Force Z poster
5.9

Sent to rescue survivors from the site of a plane crash in the South Pacific during WWII, Captain Kelly and his elite squad of Australian commandos must keep tabs on a defecting Japanese official who could hold the secret to peace.

Attack Force Z

1982

Return to Nim's Island poster
6.5

Fourteen year old Nim, more determined than ever to protect her island and all the wildlife that call it home, faces off against resort developers and animal poachers. Soon she realizes she can’t depend on her animal cohorts alone and must make her first human friend – Edmund, who’s run away to the island from the mainland – to save her home.

Return to Nim's Island

2013

Passion Flower poster
4.3

The movers and shakers in Singapore get involved in behind-the-scenes political and business activities, romantic entanglements, and murder. Nicol Williamson plays the wealthiest man in Southeast Asia. Barbara Hershey is his married antagonistic daughter who starts an affair with an ambitious American banker (Bruce Boxleitner) and who also seems to have the attention of her father.

Passion Flower

1987

Not Quite Hollywood poster
6.7

As Australian cinema broke through to international audiences in the 1970s through respected art house films like Peter Weir's "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a new underground of low-budget exploitation filmmakers were turning out considerably less highbrow fare. Documentary filmmaker Mark Hartley explores this unbridled era of sex and violence, complete with clips from some of the scene's most outrageous flicks and interviews with the renegade filmmakers themselves.

Not Quite Hollywood

2008

The Real Macaw poster
6.0

An ancient talking macaw named Mac becomes the saving grace for an elderly man threatened with a nursing home, when it is discovered that the talking bird knows the whereabouts of a buried treasure from its days with a pirate. His grandson decides to go off on the hunt only to discover that a resort now exists where the treasure is buried.

The Real Macaw

1998

Three Summers poster
5.3

Set over three summers at The Westival, a fictional West Australian rural folk festival redoubtable local radio personality ‘Queenie' describes as "Australia in a tent". Two young musicians fall in love against a wider collection of tales dealing with a microcosm of contemporary discussion points, including Indigenous, immigration and refugee issues.

Three Summers

2017

Blaze poster
5.4

After a young girl witnesses a violent crime, she summons an imaginary dragon to help process her anger and protect her on her journey into womanhood.

Blaze

2022

Grievous Bodily Harm poster
5.0

A schoolteacher (John Waters) becomes obsessed with the idea that his wife (Joy Bell) did not die in a car accident, as everyone else thinks.

Grievous Bodily Harm

1988

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears poster
6.1

After freeing a young Bedouin girl from her unjust imprisonment in Jerusalem, an Australian adventuress, together with her devoted police detective friend, begins to unravel a decade-old mystery concerning priceless emeralds, an ancient curse and the disappearance of the girl's mother and massacre of her tribe.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

2020

Jesus Christ Superstar poster
NR

The 1992 Australian Cast Concert Tour of Jesus Christ Superstar was a phenomenal success with fans of stage and the artists involved. To date, the only keepsake fans have had of this production is the Official Cast Recording CD which at the time, debut at #1 and remained at #1 for 10 weeks (4× Platinum). It also went on to be awarded 'Highest Selling Album' at the 1993 ARIA Awards.

Jesus Christ Superstar

1992

Totally Gay! poster
5.3

Totally Gay! is a 2003 television special on VH1 that discusses gay pop culture in the United States. The content of the show includes the hottest sitcoms (Will & Grace), newest gay icons (Kyle and Lane Carlson, who say they are not gay), and the most popular dog breed (pug). The somewhat light-hearted tone of the show was balanced at the end by narrator Trev Broudy discussing the assault that he had suffered shortly before the program was recorded, which left him with permanent brain damage. Totally Gay! was followed by a sequel in 2004 called Totally Gayer.

Totally Gay!

2003

The Adventures of Eliza Fraser poster
5.1

An old captain & his young wife share a lot of adventures after they're shipwrecked and captured by Aborigines on an island near Australia.

The Adventures of Eliza Fraser

1976

Summerfield poster
6.4

When teacher Simon arrives in a small, secluded village to take over the local school, he is surprised to discover that his predecessor has disappeared without a trace - and that nobody seems too concerned about it. As Simon probes deeper into the disappearance, the inhabitants of a forbidding estate called "Summerfield" take on more and more significance.

Summerfield

1977

Evil Never Dies poster
5.3

After his wife is brutally murdered, a policeman transfers to patrol duty at a college, only to discover that the now-executed murderder may be brought back to life as part of a professor's experiment.

Evil Never Dies

2003

No artwork available
NR

Caught between social-media backlash and supporting his ex-partner's latest exhibition, a once radical artist must face a reckoning for them both.

Nothing, Number 2

No artwork available
8.0

Stamford and Carla attend the wedding of a longtime friend of Stamford's, Lee Cheng. When the wedding toast is drunk, chaos ensues when an entire table of guests is poisoned. Only four, including Stamford, survive. The six victims are a mixed bunch, from a major industrialist to a gossip columnist. How can you find the murderer when you don't even know who the target was? Stamford works his way through the false leads and learns much about the underside of the lives of the rich and famous before he uncovers the bizarre truth

Singapore Sling: Midnight Orchid

1995

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab poster
6.0

Melbourne, 1886. Two gentlemen climb into a hansom cab late one murky night. One man climbs out, the other travels on to St Kilda. On arrival, the driver finds the second man dead; murdered. The ‘high-society’ killing sends shockwaves through the young city, still flush from its gold-rush boom.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

2012

The Christmas Visitor poster
8.0

In the Australian outback, a small boy determines to see that a nasty, curmudgeonly miser gets the Christmas spirit.

The Christmas Visitor

1987