Fangs for the memory!
PHILIP QUAST has been given a new nickname-Fang!Garry Shelley
TV WEEK Australia 13 June 1987It's a bequest from the cast and crew of Fields Of Fire, simply because he dies early in the piece after being bitten by a snake while cutting cane.
"They obviously thought it funny, me dying from snakebite, " Philip says from London, where he is filming The First Kangaroos for Roadshow, Coote And Carroll.
"My character, Albie, is only a small role in Fields Of Fire," says Philip. "But he's pivotal in a sense that his death makes way for Todd Boyce's character to join the cane-cutting gang. "
According to Philip, Fields Of Fire did very well when it was shown in England - rating 49 and 47. Fields Of Fire is Philip's third association with producers David Elfick and Steve Knapman.
"They thought it would be a nice little role for me - nothing out of the ordinary - so they offered it to me. And, because I have a busy year ahead, it suited my schedule. "
In The First Kangaroos he has another "little, tiny role" as Bluey, one of the footballers.
The $3.3 million production (for Network Ten) is being shot both in Australia and England by Ross Berryman, with whom Philip worked in the telemovie Army Wives.
When he returns to Australia he'll go back to ABC-TV's Play School which he's co-hosted on and off for the past four years. Philip, who is also a singer of exceptional talent, has won the plum role of Javert in the Australian production of Les Miserables.
"I'm really looking forward to that, " says the actor, who's also sung in such classics as Candide, The Threepenny Opera and Carmen. Javert is the police inspector who pursues Valjean-played by Normie Rowe.