Leonard Teale

Australian actor

Leonard George Thiele AO (26 September 192214 May 1994), professionally Leonard Teale, was an Australian actor of radio, television and film and radio announcer, presenter and narrator known for his resonant baritone voice. He is best remembered for his role in the long running Australian police procedural drama Homicide as David "Mac" MacKay. As a professional actor he adopted Teale – a homophone of his birth surname, Thiele – as a stage name.

Leonard George Thiele was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Maude Henrietta Thiele, née Rasmussen, and Herman Albert Thiele, a chemist. He attended Milton State Primary School and Brisbane Grammar School (1934–38) on a scholarship. However, the family's financial situation during the Great Depression forced Leonard to leave school and enter the workforce. He worked as a junior clerk for Brisbane City Council's Electricity Supply Department. In his spare time, he took up amateur drama, with local repertory groups. From the age of 17, he augmented these activities with a role as a part time radio announcer, after successfully auditioning at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in Brisbane.

Following the outbreak of World War II, Thiele joined the Militia and served as a signaller. Interested in becoming a pilot, he transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 10 October 1942. He graduated from flying school the following year and was commissioned as officer. In 1944, Thiele was posted to the Mediterranean theatre, where he served with No. 458 Squadron RAAF, a maritime patrol/strike unit, flying Vickers Wellingtons, from bases at Foggia, Italy, and Gibraltar. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant in September 1945 and was discharged on 16 January 1946, after returning to Australia.

Thiele's career as a professional actor commenced in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in radio serials; his roles included that of Superman/Clark Kent and Tarzan. He also made regular appearances in radio variety programs such as the Bonnington's Bunkhouse Show, and voiceovers in countless commercials.

His talent was nurtured and developed at the Producers Authors Composers and Talent (PACT) Centre, which was founded in 1964.

He appeared in several feature films, including Smiley, Smiley Gets a Gun and Bungala Boys. In the early 1950s, with Raymond Hanson, Roland Robinson and others, Thiele helped form the short lived Australian Cultural Defence Movement, aimed at protecting local arts and crafts production from the perceived inroads being made by imported content, particularly from the US. However, the movement faltered after becoming a target of anti communist activists, (His brother, Neville Thiele, was also targeted, for participating in left wing theatre.)

Thiele was a co compère of the radio ABC Children's Session, as "Chris" from 1951 to 1954 (also playing the title role in its Muddle Headed Wombat serial), his involvement possibly cut short by management for political reasons. At this time he was still using the surname "Thiele" professionally. Major television roles included a regular comedic role in the Mobil Limb Show, host roles in variety programs Singalong and Folkmoot, and acting roles in locally produced drama series including Whiplash, The Hungry Ones, Adventure Unlimited, and Consider Your Verdict. He is best remembered, however, for his long running role as Senior Detective (later Detective Sergeant) David "Mac" Mackay in Homicide from 1965 to 1973. Homicide was Australia's first ever locally produced TV police drama. Teale won a Logie for best Australian actor in 1974. He also hosted a documentary about the series, The Homicide Story, in 1970. Other leading television roles included Captain Woolcott in Seven Little Australians (1973), and headmaster Charles Ogilvy in school based soap opera Class of '74 (1974–75).

Teale narrated for ABC audio recordings, including the Banjo Paterson poem The Man from Snowy River, and a spoken word version of the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" on ABC TV's The Money or the Gun. His reading of Dorothea Mackellar's poem "My Country", which included the lines "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains" was so widely played in Australia during the 1970s that it was also frequently parodied.

Married three times, Leonard Teale had four children, Amanda, Juli, Jennifer and Melinda. He married his third wife, entertainer Liz Harris in 1968; Harris had appeared in three episodes of Homicide. Leonard Teale died of a heart attack in 1994. A documentary, Homicide: 30 Years On, aired later that year which included reminiscences from former Homicide castmates and footage of an appearance made by himself and Homicide actors George Mallaby and Alwyn Kurts in 1992 presenting a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Series partially in character (with hilarious results).

Year Title Role Notes1949 Eureka Stockade Feature film 1955 Call for Order 1956 Smiley Ernie Feature film (segment: The Load of Wood)1958 Smiley Gets a Gun Mr. Stevens Feature film1960 The Sundowners Shearer #2 Feature film 1961 Bungala Boys Sam Taylor Feature film1961 In Writing Detective Inspector Hurst TV play 1961 The Merchant of Venice Prince of Morocco TV play1962 Lend Me Your Stable 1964 The One That Got Away Major Arthur Dawson Feature film 1966 They're a Weird Mob Buikding Inspector (uncredited) Feature film 1976 The Bushramger Feature film1981 Maybe This Time The Minister Feature film 1983 The Body Corporate Sir Arthur Tustrain TV movie1984 Stanley 1st Detective Feature film