Hazel Hawke, 83, died on May 23 after a long battle with Alzheimer's. Source: Supplied
THIS year we lost a number of famous Australians. Here is a look back at those who died in 2013, including Hazel Hawke and Chrissy Amphlett
BILLE BROWN, 61, actor and playwright. January 13.
A highly-respected Queensland actor and playwright, Brown appeared on screen in feature films such as Fierce Creatures, Oscar and Lucinda and Killer Elite, while on the small screen he was cast in TV programs such as All Saints, Rake and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. He was awarded an AM, and was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as the first Australian to write and perform in their own play - The Swan Down Gloves. Much loved within the industry, Brown died of bowel cancer.
JON MANNAH, 23, NRL player. January 18.
Mannah debuted for Cronulla in 2009 and played 24 games for the club before linking with his brother at the Parramatta Eels. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2009, but in 2011 defied the odds to once again break into the NRL with the Sharks. He relapsed in 2012, ending his chances of playing top-level football again. Mannah was the younger brother of NSW State of Origin prop Tim Mannah.
PATRICIA LOVELL, 83, movie producer. January 26.
Lovell produced the Australian classics Gallipoli and Picnic at Hanging Rock. She was also well known to children of the 1960s and early 70s as Miss Pat from the TV show Mr Squiggle. She also appeared in the original TV version of Beauty and the Beast. She later met director Peter Weir and produced the films Gallipoli, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Break of Day and Monkey Grip. From 1996 to 2003 she worked as head of producing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. She was awarded an MBE and Order of Australia for her work.
PETER HARVEY, 68, journalist and broadcaster. March 2.
Harvey was best known for his 37-year career with the Nine Network. He began his career at Sydney's Daily Telegraph where he won a Walkley Award for best piece of newspaper reporting. He also worked for The Guardian newspaper in the UK where he received the British Reporter of the Year Award and later covered the Vietnam War for Newsweek magazine. After Vietnam, Harvey joined Nine in 1975 and headed its Canberra bureau for many years, including covering the dismissal of the Whitlam government. He enjoyed cult status for his rich baritone voice and his sign-off with the famous pause: "Peter Harvey ... Canberra". He died after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Peter Harvey, a Walkley-award winning journalist, died on March 2. Source: Supplied
ERNIE BRIDGE, 76, indigenous politician and mesothelioma campaigner. March 31.
Bridge was Western Australia's first Aboriginal MP and the first indigenous cabinet minister in any Australian government. Bridge was the Kimberley MLA from 1980 to 2001. He claimed to have been exposed to asbestos while overseeing the closure of mines in the Pilbara region in the late 1980s. In March, he lodged a writ in WA's Supreme Court seeking damages from parties including Hancock Prospecting and Wright Prospecting for contracting malignant mesothelioma. He was also a country music singer and former pastoralist. He died from an asbestos-related disease.
CHRIS BAILEY, 62, musician. April 4.
Bailey was the original bass player for Australian rock band The Angels. He joined The Angels in 1976, allowing frontman Doc Neeson to concentrate on vocals. Bailey played on the band's self-titled debut in 1977 and the iconic Face To Face, No Exit, Dark Room and Night Attack albums. He left in 1982, founding the band GANGgajang, which enjoyed the hit Sounds of Then (This is Australia). He re-joined The Angels and recorded their latest album Take It To The Streets (2012). Bailey died after fighting throat cancer.
CHRISSY AMPHLETT, 53, singer. April 21.
Amphlett was the lead singer of the Divinyls. The band's 1991 hit I Touch Myself topped the Australian chart and reached No.4 in the US and No.10 in the UK. The band had a string of hits starting with Science Fiction from their Desperate album in 1983. Four albums followed in What A Life (1985), Temperamental (1988), Divinyls (1991) and Underworld (1996). I Touch Myself shocked mainstream audiences in the US, but went on to become a global hit. Amphlett was regarded as having one of Australia's great female rock voices. She died after a battle with breast cancer.
Chrissy Amphlett, 53, the lead singer of The Divinyls who died on April 21. Source: Supplied
BRAD DREWETT, 54, tennis player, ATP president. May 3.
Drewett won two singles titles in the early 1980s and reached the quarter-finals of the 1976 Australian Open. He rose to number 34 in the world rankings. He became ATP chief in 2012 and was instrumental in gaining increased prize money for players. He was widely credited in helping to secure a larger share of prize money for the journeymen of the sport. Drewett died in Sydney following a battle against motor neurone disease.
Brad Drewett, CEO of Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) International and Tournament Director, died on May 3. Source: AP
LANCE INGRAM, 87, opera tenor. May 15.
Ingram was Australia's principal tenor in the early 1950s, and went on to be the national tenor of France for nearly 20 years. He sang with two of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century, Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland, as well as many other operatic stars around the world. While successful in Australia, Ingram was most well recognised in France. He adopted the stage name of Albert Lance internationally, and was personally given French citizenship by the late French President Charles De Gaulle, who called him "maestro".
HAZEL HAWKE, 83, first wife of Bob Hawke and Alzheimer's campaigner. May 23.
Hawke was one of Australia's most admired public figures. Born in Perth, she met her future husband and prime minister, Bob Hawke, when they were 18. The pair were married in 1956. Her interests were wide-ranging including Aboriginal affairs, music, adult literacy, playgroups, drug misuse, domestic violence, child abuse and AIDS awareness. She became patron or board member of more than 40 organisations and hosted radio and television shows. In 1994, Hazel and Bob divorced, then in 2001, Hazel found she had Alzheimer's disease. In 2003, she launched the Hazel Hawke Alzheimer's Research and Care Fund.
Hazel Hawke, 83, died on May 23 after a long battle with Alzheimer's. Source: Supplied
MANDAWUY YUNUPINGU, 56, indigenous elder and singer. June 2.
Yunupingu was well known for fronting the band Yothu Yindi, his charitable work and for being Australian of the Year in 1992. He was the lead singer in Yothu Yindi, formed in 1986, a group which created a blend of rock and traditional Aboriginal music. He was also a community leader, and the first Aboriginal person from Arnhem Land to obtain a university degree and worked closely with the Garma Institute, which helps train and educate remote indigenous youth. He had been ill with kidney disease for several years.
Mandaway Yunupingu, 56, the former lead singer of Youth Yindu and Australian of the Year who died on June 2. Source: Supplied
MICHAEL HODGMAN, 74, politician. June 19.
Hodgman had a career in federal and state politics spanning more than 40 years. The Liberal politician was also a major part of a three-generation political dynasty in Tasmania. He was elected to the Tasmanian upper house in 1966, before resigning in 1974, then winning the House of Representatives seat of Denison the following year. He became a member of the Fraser ministry in 1980 until 1983. Hodgman returned to state politics in 1992, this time in the House of Assembly. He lost his seat in 1998, but returned in 2001, and finally retired at the end of 2009. Hodgman was also known as a strong supporter of the monarchy.
PETER LEHMANN, 82, winemaker. June 28.
South Australian Lehmann, known as "The Baron of the Barossa", was one of Australia's best known and well-respected winemakers. Lehmann began his winemaking career in 1960 and retired from Peter Lehmann Wines in 2002. As well as being one of Australia's pre-eminent red winemakers he was also a mentor and inspiration to many up-and-coming winemakers, and lived on site at his winery. He had battled kidney disease for some years before passing away at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
GARY SHEARSTON, 74, folk singer. July 1.
Shearston was best known for his Top Ten UK hit with his version of Cole Porter's I Get A Kick Out Of You. He was born in country NSW and began singing folk songs as a teenager. He had his first Australian hit with Sydney Town in 1965 and in the same year hosted his own national television show, Just Folk, on the Seven Network. After living in the UK, where he had success with I Get A Kick Out Of You in 1974, the singer returned to Australia in 1989. Shearston was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1992 and his last album, The Great Australian Groove, was released in 2012.
DEREK PERCY, 64, child killer. July 24.
Percy was Victoria's longest serving prisoner. He admitted to killing Yvonne Tuohy, 12, who was snatched from Warneet Beach, southeast of Melbourne in 1969, but was found not guilty on insanity grounds. He was detained since that time. He was a suspect in the unsolved murders of Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, both 15, on Sydney's Wanda Beach in 1965; six-year-old Alan Redston in Canberra in 1966; three-year-old Simon Brook in Sydney in 1968; and the disappearance of the three Beaumont children in Adelaide in 1966. He died after a long battle with lung cancer.
PEGGY MICKELBERG, 90, Mickelberg family matriarch. August 23.
Western Australia's Mickelberg defended her sons Brian, Ray and Peter and drove a successful campaign to have their convictions for the 1983 Perth Mint gold swindle overturned. The brothers were framed by detectives and wrongly convicted of stealing more than $650,000 in gold bullion. Mickelberg was regarded as a strong and courageous woman who showed immense personal courage. She lost both legs following a car crash.
BILL PEACH, 78, journalist. August 27.
A well-respected journalist, Peach was best known as host of ABC's This Day Tonight current affairs program from 1967 to 1975. He was awarded a Logie for Outstanding Contribution to Television in 1975, before going on to make Australian-based travel programs, including Holiday with Bill Peach, Peach's Australia and The Explorers. He also founded a travel and tourism company, Bill Peach Journeys. In 1991, Peach was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the media and tourism.
MATT DOUST, 29, artist. August 28.
Doust was considered one of Australia's best young artists. His portrait of Perth model Gemma Ward made the Archibald Prize shortlist in 2011 and after moving to LA the same year Hollywood's elite became fans of his work. Comedian Jim Carrey and Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke were among buyers of his haunting, hyper-realistic portraits. He died in Los Angeles from an epileptic seizure.
JOHN HIPWELL, 65, Australian rugby union captain. September 23.
Hipwell, known as `Hippy', played 36 Tests for Australia, including nine as captain from 1968 to 1982. The halfback was born in Mayfield, NSW, and represented the Wallabies on three successive Grand Slam tours in 1966/67, 1975/76 and 1981/82. An exceptionally fast winger and a sound ball handler, Marshall played his club rugby for the Waratah club in Newcastle. Marshall also ran out seven times for NSW between 1968 and 1969.
CHRISTOPHER KOCH, 81, author. September 23.
Koch was best known as the author of 1978 novel The Year of Living Dangerously, set in Indonesia during the breakdown of President Sukarno's rule. Koch also won the Miles Franklin Award twice: in 1985 for The Doubleman, and in 1996 for Highways To A War. In 1982, The Year of Living Dangerously was made into a successful film, directed by Peter Weir. Koch co-wrote the screenplay, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Koch's first novel, The Boys In The Island, was published in 1958 while his final novel, Lost Voices, was published in 2012. It was shortlisted for the fiction section of the Prime Minister's Literary Award.
MARK BRANDON "CHOPPER" READ, 58, underworld figure and celebrity. October 9.
Read spent 23 of his 58 years in jail, and claimed to have been involved in 19 killings and the attempted murder of 11 other people. His crimes included armed robbery, assault and kidnapping, and trying to abduct a County Court judge at gunpoint. He spent 10-and-a-half years in the notorious H Division of Melbourne's Pentridge Prison. His 1991 memoir, Chopper from the Inside: Confessions of the Australian Underworld's Most Feared Headhunter, became a bestseller and formed the basis of the 2000 cult film Chopper. Read left jail for the last time in the late 1990s, turning to a career in crime fiction. He was also an artist, a stand-up comic and rapper. He died after a long battle with liver cancer.
Mark "Chopper" Read in a 2002 photo. The criminal, 58, died on October 9. Source: Supplied
MARTIN SHARP, 71, artist. December 1.
Sharp's art - bold, colourful, exuberant and distinctive - captured the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s both in Australia and internationally. He studied art at the National Art School in East Sydney and was instrumental in setting up the Sydney magazine of dissent, Oz, in 1963. Sharp later designed memorable album covers for Cream and iconic posters of artists including Bob Dylan, Donovan and Jimi Hendrix. In the 1970s, Sharp established the Yellow House artists' collective in a terrace house in inner-Sydney. He also campaigned to help save Sydney's Luna Park and to immortalise the "Eternity" man Arthur Stace. Sharp was instrumental in the word "Eternity" lighting up the Sydney Harbour Bridge on New Year's Eve 2000, and was also outspoken in the causes of civil liberties and Aboriginal rights.
ALAN COLEMAN, 76, television producer. December 10.
Coleman was considered a pioneer of the Australian soap opera. He produced Neighbours and worked on Prisoner and The Young Doctors. Born in England, Coleman was headhunted by Australian television mogul Reg Grundy in 1974 and moved to Australia. He was considered the driving force behind the hit medical soap The Young Doctors and also worked on other Grundy shows such as Class of 74 and Prisoner.
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