Biography

Bille Brown

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A Drama graduate of the University of Queensland, Bille Brown is a well-known Shakespearean actor. He began with the Queensland Theatre Company and, later, was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Strathford and London. While with the RSC, he was one of its few commissioned writers.

Bille Brown AM has been recognised twice in the Australian Honours System. On 1 January 2001 he was granted the Centenary Medal "for distinguished service to the arts" and on 26 January 2011, Bille was named as a Member of the Order of Australia "for service to the performing arts as an actor and playwright, and to education". The latter honour is denoted by the post-nominal "AM" after his name.
- IMDb mini biography by: David McAnally <dsm@maths.uq.edu.au> / realriki

While performing in a Shakespearean play in London, Brown was spotted by John Cleese, who was so impressed by his performance, that he personally asked him to take part in Cleese's new film Fierce Creatures (1997)
He began his professional acting career with the Queensland Theatre Company, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. One of his fellow actors, in the QTC, was Geoffrey Rush.
His first play, as a writer for the Royal Shakespeare Company, was "The Swan Down Gloves", which was chosen for a Royal Command performance at the Barbican in March 1982.
He has been a visiting Professor at the State University of New York College at New Paltz, which commissioned Bille Brown's play "Almost a Joke". He appeared on Broadway, in New York, as Dr. Triletsky in "Wild Honey".
During his years with the Queensland Theatre Company, he played many Shakespearean roles, including: John Falstaff in "The Merry Wives of Windsor"; the title role of King Henry V in "Henry V"; and Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing".

During an open-air performance in the park of a pre-World War 2 version of the Shakespearean play "Much Ado About Nothing", Bille Brown, in role of Benedick, commented to the audience (when an airliner flew over during his monologue), "Don't worry, it's one of ours, Alitalia!".

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