Michael Pate

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Michael Pate
Drummoyne, New South Wales, Australia
Died1 September 2008(2008-09-01) (aged 88)
Gosford, New South Wales
, Australia
Occupations
  • Actor
  • director
  • screenwriter
Years active1940–1996
Spouse
Felippa Rock
​
(m. 1951)​
ChildrenChristopher Pate

Michael Pate OAM (born Edward John Pate; 26 February 1920 – 1 September 2008) was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked prolifically as a supporting actor in Hollywood films and American Television during the 1950s and 1960s.

Biography

Early life

Pate was born in

short stories, publishing works in both Australia and the United States
.

World War II

During World War II, Pate served in the Australian Army in the South West Pacific Area. He was transferred to the 1st Australian Army Amenities Entertainment Unit, known as "The Islanders", entertaining Australian troops in various combat areas.

Australian acting career

After the war, Pate returned to radio, appearing in many plays and serials. Between 1946 and 1950 he began working in films. In 1949 he appeared in his first leading role in Sons of Matthew. In 1950, he appeared in Bitter Springs with Tommy Trinder and Chips Rafferty. That same year Pate also adapted, produced, and directed two plays: Dark of the Moon and Bonaventure.

Hollywood, 1950s–1960s

Later in 1950 he travelled to the United States to appear in a film adaptation of Bonaventure for

Julius Caesar, the 1953 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play. In the same year he played for the first time the Apache chief Victorio, a role he would reprise several times in his career, in Australian director John Farrow's western Hondo playing opposite John Wayne. Pate later said that this was his favourite film role. He also went on to perform many Native American roles in movies and on television. In 1956 he appeared in the film The Court Jester, and three years later he played the lead role of a gunfighting vampire in the horror film Curse of the Undead. He played parts as well in episodes 27 and 28 of the 1957 television series Zorro along with Guy Williams. Pate in 1963 played the role of Puma, the Comanche chief in Andrew V. McLaglen's western McLintock!
, again playing opposite John Wayne.

During his time in the United States, Pate became an acting instructor and lecturer, and wrote many screenplays and plays for American films and television series, including

Batman (episodes 45 "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes" and 46 "The Clock King Gets Crowned"), Mission: Impossible ("Trek"), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ("The Foreign Legion Affair"), Get Smart, Rawhide ("Incident of the Power and the Plow", "Incident at Superstition Prairie", "Incident of the Boomerang", and others), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ("The Traitor"), and Wagon Train. In the 1963 movie PT 109, he played the part of Arthur Reginald Evans, the Australian coast watcher who helped rescue John F. Kennedy and his crew. That role was of the few occasions when Pate played an Australian while working in the United States, others including Four Star Playhouse ("The Firing Squad"), 77 Sunset Strip ("The Down-Under Caper"), and Rawhide
("Incident of the Boomerang", for which he also wrote the story-line).

Return to Australia, 1968

In 1968, Pate returned to Australia and became a television producer, winning two

Logie Awards while working at the Seven Network.[4] In 1970, he published a textbook on acting, The Film Actor.[5] From 1971 to 1975 he starred as Detective Senior Sergeant Vic Maddern in Matlock Police. After leaving Matlock Police, Pate began working more behind the camera, continuing to work too in theatre in both Sydney and Melbourne. In 1977 he wrote and produced The Mango Tree, starring his son Christopher Pate. In 1979 he adapted the screenplay for Tim from the novel by Colleen McCullough, as well as producing and directing the film, which starred Piper Laurie and Mel Gibson. Pate won the Best Screenplay Award from the Australian Writers Guild for his adaptation.[6]

His film appearances in the 1970s and 1980s included

The Battle of Broken Hill (1981), Duet for Four (1982), The Wild Duck (1984), Death of a Soldier (1986), and Howling III (1987). Pate also appeared as the President of the United States in The Return of Captain Invincible (1982), in which he sings "What the World Needs", a song calling for the return of Captain Invincible to save the world. Additionally, Pate made a television appearance in the updated version of Mission: Impossible (1989). During the early 1980s Pate also collaborated with his son Christopher in a successful stage production of Mass Appeal at the Sydney Opera House
.

Personal life

In 1951, Pate married Felippa Rock, daughter of American film producer Joe Rock. The couple had a son, Christopher Pate, also an actor, along with a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.[citation needed]

Although Michael Pate retired from acting in 2001, he remained busy with voiceover work; and he was writing a screenplay at the time of his death. He died at the age of 88 at Gosford Hospital in New South Wales, Australia, on 1 September 2008.[1]

Partial filmography

Television

References

  1. ^ a b Gaughan, Gavin (12 November 2008). "Michael Pate: Australian B-movie actor often cast as a Native American". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  2. ^ "Michael Pate, Windmill News, Issue 2". windjilla.com.
  3. ^ "Drama Set in Caravan Park". The Age Radio & Television Supplement: 3. 14 May 1959. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  4. ^ For the series Maggie
  5. ^ The film actor; acting for motion pictures and television - National Library of Australia. 1970. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (29 September 2019). "Ten Stories About Australian Screenwriters You Might Not Know". Filmink.

External links

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