Scottish-born Australian actor who was a regular fixture on Australian television for several decades, frequently appearing in guest-starring roles in drama series and comedies, and in character roles in films and miniseries. In the 1990s he appeared in a well remembered TV advertisement for Yellow Pages where he calls a series of mechanics about his problematic Goggomobil.
Dysart departed Glasgow on the Cameronia passenger ship on 13 November 1951, arriving at Melbourne, Australia, aged 15, in November 1951. He served in the Australian army.
High-profile early roles included appearances in Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Phoenix Five, and several roles in the Crawford Productions police drama series Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police.
From 1981 to 1982 he played what is perhaps his best-known acting role, that of vicious and cold prison officer Jock Stewart in the TV series Prisoner. In the storyline, after being fired from the prison service Stewart admitted to prisoner Judy Bryant that he was the one responsible for murdering her lesbian lover, fellow prisoner Sharon Gilmour. This revelation brought to a close a murder-mystery storyline in the series but launched a long-running story-arc where Bryant repeatedly escaped from prison in a succession of attempts to exact her revenge on Stewart.
After this Dysart continued in guest-starring television roles in drama series and situation comedies, and appeared in many feature films. His films included The Man from Snowy River (1982), Bliss (1985), Garbo (1992), and Flynn (1996). His television roles of the 1990s included appearances in All Together Now, The Games, State Coroner, Blue Heelers, Something in the Air and Neighbours. He also provided the voice for Captain Griswald in Anthony Lucas’ animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005).
He was married to actress Joan Brockenshire. On 18 February 2022, Dysart suffered a stroke and was taken to the Alfred Hospital. He died in Melbourne on 7 June 2022 at the age of 86.
Link to Wikipedia biography