Simon Burke
Birthday: Born in 1961-10-08 in
Deathday: Alive
Simon Burke (born 8 October 1961) is an Australian actor. Burke began his acting career as a 13 year-old in the Australian film, The Devil's Playground for which he was awarded Best Actor at the 1976 Australian Film Institute Awards. He has since starred in numerous film, television and theatre productions in Australia and the UK. He starred as Captain Georg von Trapp in Rogers and Hammerstein's production of The Sound of Music at the London Palladium alongside Connie Fisher. Burke was Federal President of Actors Equity Australia (2004–2014) and currently a Vice President of the International Federation of Actors (FIA). Simon Burke is also well remembered for his long term stint as a presenter on the childrens television series Play School from 1988-2007 then 2013 and again in 2020.
TV Credits
The Alice
Character: Patrick
The Alice was an Australian drama television series created by Justin Monjo and Robyn Sinclair. It was set in the central outback city of Alice Springs. The program began as a successful TV movie, that later spun off a regular series. The series proved less popular and was cancelled by the Nine Network on 28 September 2005 after a sharp decline in its ratings. The entire series and original TV movie have since been released on DVD....
After the Deluge
Character: Michael
Follows the stories of the four men of the Kirby family. As Alex's marriage breaks apart, Toby tries desperately to start a family, and Marty tries to kick-start his faded music career as well as find a meaningful relationship with someone his own age, all three must come to terms with their father's mental state. Cliff, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, is reliving his disturbing memories of the war and his first love, as a part of his experiences of the present . Through all four stories, we...
Always Afternoon
Character: Tom
Always Afternoon is a 1988 Australian mini series about German internees in Australia. It was a co production between Germany and Australia. It inspired a series of paintings by Ross Watson....
Brides of Christ
Character: Jack Delahunty
Diane, a young woman growing up in Australia in the mid 1960s, walks away from her fiancé to join a convent after being sure she has a calling to the faith. The Catholic Church and its followers are struggling with huge changes. The Pope has died, there is war in Vietnam and mandatory conscription, there is the Vatican controversy on abortion and contraception, and the changing face of the Church as a whole. Told in six parts, Diane faces her own demons and has to finally decide if she can teach...
Scales of Justice
Character: Constable Webber
Scales of Justice is a three-part Australian drama miniseries, made in 1983 by director Michael Jenkins. It was one of the most controversial Australian mini-series ever produced, examining corruption in all levels of law enforcement....
Hustle
Character: Nick
A motley group of London con artists pull of a series of daring and intricate stings....
Rescue: Special Ops
Character: Warren Thompson
Rescue: Special Ops is an Australian television drama series that first screened on the Nine Network in 2009. Filmed in and around Sydney, the program is produced by Southern Star Group with the assistance of Screen Australia and the New South Wales Government. This drama series focuses on a team of experienced professional paramedics who specialise in rescue operations. It premiered on Sunday 2 August 2009, and the season finale of the first season aired on Sunday 25 October. A second season s...
The Flying Doctors
Character: Daryl Stokes
The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led to its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, p...
Thank God You're Here
Character:
Each episode involves performers walking through a door into an unknown situation, greeted by the line "Thank God you're here!". They then had to improvise their way through the scene. At the end of each episode a winner was announced....
Devil's Playground
Character: Tom Allen
The year is 1988. It is 35 years after the events of Fred Schepisi’s classic film, The Devil’s Playground. Tom Allen, now in his 40s and recently widowed, is a respected Sydney psychiatrist and father of two children. A practicing Catholic, Tom accepts an offer by the Bishop of Sydney to become a counselor of priests. During these sessions, he will uncover a scandal and become embroiled in the Church’s attempts to cover it up. Tom’s quest for justice will push him to his limits, and reveal a sid...
Deep Water
Character: Simon Mawbrey
Detectives Tori Lustigman and Nick Manning are assigned a brutal murder case in Bondi, where they begin to uncover mounting evidence to suggest the killing is connected to a spate of unexplained deaths, "suicides" and disappearances of gay men throughout the 80s and 90s. Haunted by the disappearance of her teenage brother, Tori's fascination with the case soon turns to fixation. When more ritualistic murders occur with the same bizarre signature, Tori and Nick will need to put their relationship...
Heroes II: The Return
Character: Capt. Ellis
Heroes II: the Return is a 1991 Australian mini-series about Operation Rimau during World War II. The true and tragic story of Operation Rimau, one of the most daring raids of WW2. In September 1944 Ivan Lyon and 22 Australian and British troops attempted to blow up Japanese ships in Singapore. Just 10 miles away from the target they are discovered and so begin a long and desperate bid to escape to Australia. The series shows how after the war it is revealled that 13 men were killed during the ...
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Character: Nicholas Mortimer
Our lady sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920’s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit. Leaving a trail of admirers in her wake, our thoroughly modern heroine makes sure she enjoys every moment of her lucky life. Based on author Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Murder Mystery novels....
Young Lions
Character: Rob Watson
Young Lions was an Australian TV police drama broadcast on the Nine Network in 2002 and in Ireland on RTÉ Two.The series was based around the professional and private lives of four rookie detectives, the Young Lions, of South West 101, an inner city Sydney police station. The program rated poorly and was not renewed after its first season. Competition from other new drama series and several timeslot changes also contributed to the show's demise....
Wentworth
Character: Himself - Host
Bea Smith is locked up while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of her husband and must learn how life works in prison. A modern adaptation and sequel of the iconic Prisoner series....
Crazy Fun Park
Character: Mark
A shy teen wants desperately to fit in and enjoy his high school years if only his dead best friend and a posse of rotting ghouls would stop sabotaging him at every turn....
Movie Credits
Pitch Black
Character: Greg Owens
When their ship crash-lands on a remote planet, the marooned passengers soon learn that escaped convict Riddick isn't the only thing they have to fear. Deadly creatures lurk in the shadows, waiting to attack in the dark, and the planet is rapidly plunging into the utter blackness of a total eclipse. With the body count rising, the doomed survivors are forced to turn to Riddick with his eerie eyes to guide them through the darkness to safety. With time running out, there's only one rule: Stay in ...
The One That Got Away
Character: Stan
The existence of the anti-Iraq coalition was threatened when Saddam targetted Israel. In order to keep Israel out of the war, and the coalition together the Scuds had to be stopped. SAS patrol Bravo Two Zero, under the command of Sgt. Andy McNab was tasked to destroy these weapons. Three of the SAS troopers were killed and four captured: Only one escaped - Cpl. Chris Ryan....
The Devil's Playground
Character: Tom Allen
A powerful drama relating the intimate aspect of teenage boys and their priest/educators behind the walls of a religious institution where rigid discipline backfires natural feelings are deemed unnatural acts and human lives are controlled in the names of good intentions....
The Postcard Bandit
Character: Thomas
The story of notorious Australian bank robber Brendan Abbott, who according to the myth, sent postcards to authorities hot on his trail while on the run across the country....
South Pacific
Character: Harbison
During World War II in the South Pacific love is found between a young nurse, Nellie Forbush and an older French plantation owner, Emile de Becque. The war is tearing them apart....
Heroes' Mountain
Character: Euan Diver
The story of Stuart Diver, the only person to survive the 1997 Thredbo tragedy that came about when a landslide engulfed a ski lodge situated in Australia's Snowy Mountains....
The Clinic
Character: Paul
A comedic, dramatic day in the lives of employees and patients at a venereal disease clinic....
The Irishman
Character: Michael Doolan
Paddy Doolan is a man who refuses to accept change. In a new century where the motor car is changing the way things are done, the stubborn Irishman, the last of the draught-horse teamsters, continues to haul timber the old way....
The Hidden History of Homosexual Australia
Character: Narrator (voice)
A documentary on the impact of gay and lesbian people in Australia....
Slate, Wyn & Me
Character: Wyn Jackson
Meandering drama of Brothers Burke and Sacks, who rob a bank, kill a cop and kidnap Thornton, a witness to their crime....
Passion
Character: Herman Sandby
Passion concentrates on Grainger's unusual relationship with his mother and his sexual peculiarities (especially his obsessive self-flagellation, though homosexuality is also hinted at) which affect his relationship with a woman who comes to love him. It is set mainly in London in 1914, when Grainger's mother Rose was ill (she would later jump to her death in New York, upset by ill-founded rumours of incest with her son)....
Small Claims: The Reunion
Character: Jon
Chrissy and Jo attend Chrissy's university reunion. Surrounded by success, Chrissy begins to question her decision to stay at home with the kids. When an old friend's husband is found dead in the harbour from an apparent heart attack, Chrissy and Jo are drawn to solve the mystery after learning the dead man's blood contained Ketamine, an animal tranquilliser used as a party drug....
The Alice
Character: Patrick
Alice Springs is the scene of an enchanting date with destiny. Great planetary forces are at work, drawing people to a total eclipse of the sun - An unorthodox hero seeking the love of his life, a central Australian tour gone wrong, a young romantic lost in the desert, a rogue road train and a young woman having fantasies about killing her drop-kick of a husband......