Sunday the 13th of January 2013 we lost the actor, playwright, mentor and director Bille Brown to cancer at the young age of 61. Over some decades I had a small passing interaction with Bille. We nodded at cafe's, chatted at the cinema smiled at the opera and had several wonderful friends in common. Once I extolled the brilliance of his portrayal of Oscar Wilde and also found myself presumptuous enough to criticise his direction of the Opera Don Giovanni. We did have some chuckles over that via email. In his international career he was amongst many things an artist in residence and visiting Professor at the University of New York. He performed in London's West End and made his Broadway debut in 1986.
This video below of The Ages on Man is the last time I saw him on television a few weeks ago and the last time I saw him in person was back in September when we both in attendance at a concert opera with another great Queenslander Lisa Gasteen. He was wearing the same flamboyant red jacket he wore at the Helpmann Awards that same month. Bille stood out. He smiled and was charming and all the theatre people in our fine city will miss him.
