Bud Tingwell

Charles William "Bud" Tingwell AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009) was an Australian film, television, theatre and radio actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his first motion picture in 1946 and went on to appear in more than 100 films and numerous TV programmes in both the United Kingdom and Australia.

Early life and military service

Tingwell was born in the Sydney suburb of Coogee, the son of William Harvey Tingwell and Enid (née Green). As an adolescent, his father encouraged him to be an accountant, but Tingwell failed the entrance exam. While still at school, he became a cadet at Sydney radio station 2CH, soon becoming the youngest radio announcer in Australia.

In 1941, aged 18, Tingwell volunteered for war service overseas with the Royal Australian Air Force. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, personnel from Commonwealth air forces formed part of a joint training and assignment system. Consequently, Tingwell trained as a pilot in Canada during 1942. Despite damaging a Harvard training aircraft in August, he later qualified as a pilot and was commissioned as a pilot officer that December. He was posted to the Mediterranean Theatre and underwent operational training with No. 74 OTU RAF, in British Palestine, and qualified to fly the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire.

Cinema of Australia

The Australian film industry has its beginnings with the 1906 production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film ever made. Since then, many films have been produced in Australia, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers started their careers in Australian films, a large number of whom have acquired international reputations, and a number of whom have found greater financial benefits in careers in larger film producing centers, such as in the United States.

Cinema in Australia began with the first public screenings of films in Australia in October 1896, within a year of the world's first screening in Paris by Lumière brothers. The first Australian exhibition took place at the Athenaeum Hall in Collins Street, Melbourne, to provide alternative entertainment for the dance hall patrons. The venue would continue screenings, but these were all short films.

Commercially successful Australian films have included Paul Hogan's "Crocodile" Dundee, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! , Chris Noonan's Babe and Matt Drummond's Dinosaur Island. Other award winning productions include Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, The Tracker, Shine and Ten Canoes.

Charles

Charles is a masculine given name from the French form Charles of a Germanic name Karl. The original Anglo-Saxon was Ċearl or Ċeorl, as the name of king Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England.

The corresponding Old Norse form is Karl, the German form is also Karl. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as Karolus (as in Vita Karoli Magni), later also as Carolus.

Etymology

The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun *karlaz meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (< Old English ċeorl), which developed its deprecating sense in the Middle English period.

In the form Charles, the initial spelling ch- corresponds to the palatalization of the Latin group ca- to [tʃa] in Central Old French (Francien) and the final -s to the former subjective case (cas sujet) of masculine names in Old French like in Giles or James (< Latin -us, see Spanish/ Portuguese Carlos).

According to Julius Pokorny, the historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist, the root meaning of Karl is "old man", from Indo-European *ĝer-, where the ĝ is a palatal consonant, meaning "to rub; to be old; grain." An old man has been worn away and is now grey with age.