Bob Ellis

Robert James Ellis (10 May 1942 – 3 April 2016) was an Australian journalist, screenwriter, playwright, filmmaker, and political commentator. He lived in Sydney with author and screenwriter Anne Brooksbank; they had three children.

Early years Ellis was raised a Seventh-day Adventist. He says the "seminal moment" of his life happened when he was ten and his 22-year-old sister was killed while crossing the road.Bob Ellis, "What I Know About Women" , Daily Life, 19 August 2012, accessed 23 October 2012.

He attended Lismore High and then the University of Sydney on a Sir Robert Menzies scholarship, at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Robert Hughes and Mungo McCallum. After graduating he had a variety of jobs before being employed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Writing career Ellis was a regular contributor to the Nation Review in the 1970s and subsequently contributed to Fairfax Media newspapers and The National Times.Bob Ellis (opeds by) at The National Times

Ellis became a popular playwright, usually working in collaboration. In 1970 he and Michael Boddy (1934–2014) co-wrote The Legend of King O'Malley, a musical play based on the life of King O'Malley. From 1975 to 1986 he and Brooksbank also owned the Stables Theatre in Kings Cross, Sydney, during which time it became home to the Griffin Theatre Company. They sold it in 1986 for $200,000.

Ellis wrote several film scripts, often in collaboration with others, notably Newsfront (1978), ...Maybe This Time (1980, with Anne Brooksbank), Fatty Finn (1980) Man of Flowers (1983, with Paul Cox), Goodbye Paradise (1983), Where the Green Ants Dream (Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen) (1984, with Werner Herzog), My First Wife (1984, with Paul Cox), Cactus (1986, with Paul Cox) and The Nostradamus Kid (1992).

In 1980 Ellis signed a contract with the New South Wales Film Corporation to write ten feature film scripts over two years for $7,000 for each script, with a payment of $12,000 for the second draft if they wanted to make the movie. Ellis says he presented them with 33 ideas, they chose five and he chose five.Richard Brennan, "Bob Ellis", Cinema Papers, Oct–Nov 1980 pp. 314–316.

Ellis also directed several films, including The Nostradamus Kid (1992), Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1988), Unfinished Business (1985) and Run Rabbit, Run (2007).Kerr C The Curse of Bob Ellis (review) at Crikey.com.au, 27 August 2007

Ellis's writing for television included the miniseries True Believers (with co-author Matt Carroll) and Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal (2008), with co-author Geoff Burton, made for Film Australia.Infamous Victory – Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal at ABC Commercial

Awards Year Work Award Category Result 1978 Newsfront Australian Film Institute Awards Best Screenplay (with Anne Brooksbank and Phillip Noyce) 1982 Goodbye Paradise Australian Film Institute Awards Best Screenplay (with Denny Lawrence) 1984 My First Wife Australian Film Institute Awards Best Screenplay (with Paul Cox)

Politics Ellis, a supporter of the Australian Labor Party, wrote speeches for a number of Labor leaders (such as Bob Carr, Paul Keating and Kim Beazley) and wrote extensively on Labor history.

Regarding Ellis's speech writing, Beazley said on the 7.30 Report that if he had used any of Ellis's speeches he would have been out of politics.

Ellis unsuccessfully contested the Federal seat of Mackellar as an independent candidate against the Liberal Party's Bronwyn Bishop in a by-election in 1994 as the ALP did not field a candidate in that by-election.

Ellis's 2011 book Suddenly, Last Winter – An Election Diary created headlines for its criticism of the Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and praise for the Liberal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. He described Gillard as "not well informed" and "sudden, firm and wrong" in everything she does. He also said "She has no power, no influence, no friends, no learning. There's not much there", while describing Abbott as having "good manners", being "formidable" and possessing a "first-class mind".

Ellis wrote speeches for South Australian Premier Mike Rann for a number of years.'Bob Ellis fought release of fee information for fear of sales hit' by Christian Kerr, The Australian 30 November 2011 accessed 16 December 2011

Death On 18 July 2015, Ellis reported on his blog that he would be attending hospital for what he called "ominous" tests on his liver. The next day he announced "The news is very bad", and that the tests had revealed he had advanced liver cancer with a prognosis that he had months, if not weeks, to live.

Ellis died on 3 April 2016, at his home in Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Controversy In June 2018, Kate and Rozanna Lilley, daughters of celebrated playwright Dorothy Hewett, alleged that they had engaged in consensual sex at the ages of 15 and 14 with Ellis.Mum’s men used us for under-age sex, say Dorothy Hewett’s daughters, The Australian, June 9, 2018 Ellis was castigated by feminists including Delaney and Maley.

Writings Ellis wrote two books, Goodbye Jerusalem and Goodbye Babylon, on his experiences of the Labor Party. The first edition of Goodbye Jerusalem was pulped following a successful defamation case brought by two Liberal cabinet ministers, Tony Abbott and Peter Costello, and their wives. At issue was the single sentence where Ellis quoted politician Rodney Cavalier as having said, "Abbott and Costello...they're both in the Right wing of the Labour [sic] Party till the one woman fucked both of them and married one of them and inducted them into the Young Liberals". The publisher, Random House, accepted that the disputed content was a falsehood and the book was removed from sale. ACT Supreme Court Justice Higgins awarded the two politicians and their wives a total of $277,000 damages. A new edition of the book was published three months later which omitted the defamatory passage.

In 1998 Penguin Books Australia published Ellis's First Abolish the Customer – 202 Arguments Against Economic Rationalism, then Ellis's The Capitalism Delusion – How Global Economics Wrecked Everything and What To Do About It in 2009, One Hundred Days of Summer in 2010, and The Ellis Laws in 2014.

Bibliography

Theatre Year Title Role Notes 1970–2001 The Legend of King O'Malley Co-writer (with Michael Boddy) / lyricist 1971 Big Brother Dragon Co-writer (with Michael Boddy) 1971–1972 Duke of Edinburgh Assassinated or The Vindication of Henry Parkes Co-writer (with Dick Hall) 1973 The Francis James Dossier Playwright / lyricist Musical about Francis James 1975 Whitlam Days Writer 1975–1976 Down Under Co-writer (with Anne Brooksbank) Also producer on 1975 Stables Theatre, Sydney production 1980 A Very Good Year Writer 1990s Man, the musical Book and lyrics (with Denny Lawrence) 2001 The City of the Plains Writer 2004 A Local Man: A Play about Ben Chifley Co-writer (with Robin McLachlan) 2012 Shakespeare in Italy Co-writer (with Denny Lawrence) Intimate Strangers Co-writer (with Denny Lawrence) Unproduced

Screenplays Year Title Role Notes 1978 Newsfront Writer (with Anne Brooksbank) Feature film1980 Fatty Finn Writer Feature film Maybe This Time Writer (with Anne Brooksbank) Feature film1983 Goodbye Paradise Writer (with Denny Lawrence) Feature film Man of Flowers Writer (with Paul Cox) Feature film The Winds of Jarrah Writer Feature film 1984 My First Wife Writer (with Paul Cox) Feature film1985 Unfinished Business Writer / director Feature film Top Kid Writer (with John Hepworth) TV series The Paper Boy Writer (with John Hepworth) TV1986 Cactus Writer (with Paul Cox) Feature film The Gillies Republic Writer TV series1987 Bullseye Writer Feature film Perhaps Love Writer TV movie1988 True Believers Writer Miniseries Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train Writer / director Feature film 1992 Gillies and Company Writer TV series1993 Dreaming of Lords Writer (with Ernie Dingo / director Documentary film The Nostradamus Kid Writer / director Feature film 1994 Ebbtide Writer Direct-to-video film1998 Wildside Writer TV series, episode 24 Bastards from the Bush: A Journey with Bob Ellis and Les Murray Writer Documentary film 2008 Infamous Victory: Ben Chifley's Battle for Coal Writer Documentary

Unmade screenplays Year Title Role Notes 1980 The Road to Gundagai Writer vehicle for Bert Newton and Gerard Kennedy as soldiers on latrine duty during the bombing of DarwinRichard Brennan, 'Bob Ellis, Cinema Papers, Oct–Nov 1980 p 386 Adaptation of The Sentimental Bloke Writer For director Maurice Murphy starring Phillip QuastDavid Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p186c.1980 Unnamed comedy script Writer About radio actors in the 1940s Unnamed miniseries Co-writer (with James Ricketson) About Bea Miles Unnamed road film Writer About two girls going north to audition for a cabaret version of Brigadoon in Surfers Paradise These Remembrances Writer Set around the time of the Whitlam Dismissal The Girl from Kiev Writer About two 40-year-old divorced lawyers travelling near Chernobyl falling for a Russian girlAndrew L. Urban, "Bob Ellis' The Nostradamus Kid", Cinema Papers, January 1992 p15 Adaptation of Homage to Catalonia Writer For director Hugh Hudson, starring Colin Firth and Kevin Spacey 2011 Shakespeare in Italy Writer Paper Tigers Writer Miniseries about the Murdoch family

Novels Year Title Role Notes 1976 Mad Dog Morgan Co-author (with Anne Brooksbank) Based on the Philippe Mora film Mad Dog Morgan 1980 Fatty Finn Author Based on his film script1985 Top Kid Co-author (with John Hepworth) Novelisation of his film script The Paper Boy Co-author (with John Hepworth) Novelisation of his film script 1993 The Hewson Tapes : A Secret History, Perhaps, of Our Times Author Fiction presented as the diary of John Hewson 1996 The Season Co-author with Roy Masters

Non-fiction Year Title Role Notes The Things We Did Last Summer: An Election Journal Author Account of the 1983 Australian federal election Two weeks in another country: a journal of the 1983 British election Author Account of the 1983 United Kingdom general election 1987 Letters to the Future Author Collection of writings from 1969–1987 1992 The Inessential Ellis Author Collection of writings 1997 Goodbye Jerusalem: night thoughts of a Labor outsider Author Writings centred on the history of the Australian Labor Party up to the 1996 Australian federal election 1998 First abolish the customer: 202 arguments against economic rationalism Author 1999 So it goes: essays, broadcasts, speeches 1987–1999 Author 2002 Goodbye Babylon: further journeys in time and politics Author 2004 Night thoughts in time of war Author 2009 And so it went: night thoughts in a year of change (2009) Author Events around the 2007 Australian federal election The capitalism delusion: how global economics wrecked everything and what to do about it Author 2010 One hundred days of summer: how we got to where we are Author Suddenly, last winter: an election diary Author Diary of the 2010 Australian federal election 2014 The Ellis Laws Author

Music Year Title Role Notes 1974 Ned Kelly: The Rock Opera Additional lyrics Concept album by Patrick Flynn & Reg Livermore

Acting credits

Film Year Title Role Type 1983 Man of Flowers Psychiatrist Feature film 1985 I Own the Racecourse Renehan Feature film

Theatre Year Title Role Type 1961 Wet Blankets St Barnabas Church Hall, Sydney 1995–1996 The Human Behan Mission Theatre, Newcastle, Bondi Pavilion, Sydney 2000 Waiting for Godot Bridge Theatre, Sydney

References

Bob Ellis

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