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Lex Marinos OAM, 1 February - 13 September
Lex Marinos. Photographer Greer Versteeg. Ironically, and more than once, Lex would refer to himself as a jobbing actor.
Lex marianos actor biography sites Marinos was a former deputy chair of the Australia Council and a member of the creative team behind the Sydney Opening Ceremony. Recently viewed. Contents move to sidebar hide. But Marinos is perhaps best remembered for his role in the popular s sitcom, Kingswood Country.If so, he was the busiest jobbing actor that I have ever seen in action.
Contemplating Lex’s career makes you giddy. His first love was sport. But then came theatre.
A love affair that began in university drama productions where Lex fell under the spell of Aarne Neeme’s inspirational work.
Lex was a natural performer and in time a director and a producer.
This was bravery at the tail end of an era that demanded performers in radio and theatre be of Anglo-extraction—or at least learn to cultivate a British accent … and probably not be born of Greek immigrant stock.
Lex Marinos, was one of the early advocates for the Australian voice on stage, TV, film, radio and for multiculturalism.
A full-circle that was later realised with Lex directing and performing and working with colleagues in the middle of the Australian desert with Indigenous and Non Indigenous casts performing together.
I first worked with Lex in a different desert somewhere in the late 60s. In Arnold Newman’s production of Jean-Claude van Itallie’s—The Serpent at Sydney’s home of daring new work of the day: the New Theatre.
Lex was a very witty, eager, university student. Somehow, by the end of the run we had become fast friends.
Theatre actor biography Glitch 7. The condition was managed but returned in A post to his Facebook on Saturday said the former Kingswood Country actor died at home on Friday at his Sydney home, "at a moment of his choosing, surrounded by family and the sounds of Bob Dylan accompanying our vigil". But Marinos is perhaps best remembered for his role in the popular s sitcom, Kingswood Country.A friendship that was to last for more than fifty years.
Initially, for Lex success in the “real world” was hard to come by. He railed against vapid plays and producers with limited vision. Nevertheless, he forged ahead with the other non-Anglo would be thespians condemned, it would seem, to be eternally type-cast as waiters and taxi drivers.
Suddenly it was the early 70s and their time had come.
At first theatre succumbed, bit by bit to Lex’s wicked charm with roles in Shakespeare’s Richard III and Brecht and Weill’s Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and many more for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Then in Sydney came many productions with the Nimrod Theatre, King O’Malley Theatre Company, the Pram Factory, La Mama and many more around this wide, brown land.
Lex marianos actor biography sites free He initially refused the role. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. His directing credits included the films An Indecent Obsession and Boundaries of the Heart, the television series Bodyline and Embassy, and a number of documentaries and theatre productions. Obituary: Leila Hayes.It was an adventurous time for burgeoning new Australian writing and production companies where anything was possible.
Lex was surrounded by many like-minded souls that lead him to the National Playwrights Conference in Canberra. An event Lex loved. The heady atmosphere of developing new works. Australian plays!
Then came lots of ricocheting back and forward between Sydney and Melbourne.
More theatre plus TV appearances in Crawford’s cop shows, ABC comedy shows (including Aunty Jack), ABC Kids’ shows and SBS Kids’ current affair shows.
It was a time of learning—and along the way he was to assay many memorable roles. From the much-loved BRUNO in the TV series Kingswood Country to his celebrated, performance as MANOLIS in The Slap.
In the early days “learning” involved a lot of touring and Lex and that beautiful actor John Clayton went on the road with Alex Buzo’s Norm and Ahmed.
Once, during a complicated, show-stopping bit of stunt acting John mis-counted and accidentally, but nevertheless literally, threw Lex over his shoulder off the stage and into the front row of the audience.
Lex and John ad-libbed Lex all the way back onto the stage and back onto the script. So seamless were they that the audience thought that it was all a part of the show.
And then there were more adventures to come ranging from writing and directing episodes of George Miller’s Bodyline series to becoming a founding member of the ABC’s Contemporary Radio Unit or as it was better known Double Jay-the origin story for today’s JJJ.
It would be churlish of me not to mention Lex’s fine work on-air in the often-alarming Ted and Lex Show where the call-sign was, appropriately “2JJ THE STATION OF THE STARS—and Ted and Lex”.
Let us not forget Lex the sporting commentator on TV and radio.
Lex marianos actor biography sites images Marinos died in Sydney on 13 September , aged 75, after a two-decade battle with leukemia. In , he delivered the tenth annual Tom Brock Lecture , on the history of Australian immigration and rugby league. References [ edit ]. The Equity Foundation.He loved all sport, he was a self- confessed “cricket tragic” and a walking cricket encyclopaedia.
After many other escapades Lex became a part of Andrew Denton and Libbi Gorr’s TV variety/sports-based show Live and Sweaty where Lex played a character called THE SWINE. He developed a mighty double-act with the friendly AFL giant Peter Patric Pius Paul “Crackers” Keenan.
Then there was ABC World Series Debating where participants were required to write and perform their own scripts.
A challenge for some, but not Lex.
Notwithstanding all that comedy, Lex still managed to appear regularly in plays of merit in Melbourne and Sydney and—well everywhere. Simultaneously appearing in departures that included experimental theatre, ABC TV dramas and series like the then controversial program Embassy and many shows on commercial TV.
Then he went legit.
Directing theatre, feature films, documentaries and TV. (Please see IMDb).
During his time as the Festival Director in his hometown of Wagga Wagga he not only created ground breaking community art but, as a non-horse-person, he found himself organising The National Horse Festival.
Lex was invited onto the Multicultural Advisory Board of the Organising Committee for the Sydney Olympics.
He had already been conscripted into working on the opening ceremony where he had been asked to devise and direct the segment that dealt with migration. Subsequently, he was invited to carry an Olympic torch on part of its journey.
Lex continued to evolve as a cultural omnivore with tastes extending from the world of Arts Councils to popular music … always Music.
His particular passion was the songs of the contemporary poets, no better exemplified than in his absolute love of everything—“Bob Dylan”.
And it came to pass on what was to be Lex’s last day on earth, albeit at a moment of his choosing, those who gathered at the Marinos family home were required to wear a Dylan T-shirt and to appreciate the continuous back-ground Dylan soundtrack as curated by Lex.
But back to the next chapter of our story where Lex finds himself in Mbantu, the Indigenous name for Alice Springs, on the traditional lands of the Arrernte people working on the forthcoming celebrations that would invite Indigenous and Non-Indigenous to come together with what the locals call Anyenteke-Irretyeke—Coming Together as One.
In looking for new challenges Lex became involved with Scott Rankin and his company Big hART—the producers of community inspired, artistically brilliant shows and projects that involved Indigenous groups from all over central Australia gaining the attention of punters, politicians and arts practitioners everywhere.
Somewhere in that very full life Lex scored a gong—an OAM!
And somewhere in that extraordinary life he found time to achieve all that he wanted to while at all times his wife Anne, his kids and the grandkids were the absolute cornerstone of his life.
Vale Lex