Vincent Ball
Birthday: Born in 1923-12-04 in Wee Waa, New South Wales, Australia
Deathday: Alive
Vincent Martin Ball OAM (born 4 December 1923) is an Australian-born retired character actor of radio, stage and screen, active in the industry for nearly 55 years (with a brief return) firstly in Britain and then his native Australia. He has also authored a number of books. He is best known for film roles in British and Australian films and TV movies, including A Town Like Alice, Breaker Morant, Phar Lap, Muriel's Wedding and The Man Who Sued God. He appeared in numerous TV roles, primarily in cameo guest roles, but had recurring roles in serials like Rush, The Young Doctors, A Country Practice and Home and Away. Vincent Ball has also worked variously in theatre, including Shakespeare, with productions of Henry IV and Romeo and Juliet and a musical based on Charles Dickens famous novel Great Expectations. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
TV Credits
Blue Murder
Character: Dr. Cumberland
Set in the 1970s and 1980s in Sydney, the miniseries concerns the relationship between controversial former Detective Roger "the Dodger" Rogerson and notorious criminal Arthur "Neddy" Smith. Rogerson and his colleagues were accused of giving Smith a "green light" to commit crimes without Police interference, with the relationship fraying when Rogerson orders hitman Christopher "Mr. Rent-a-Kill" Flannery to murder Police Officer Michael Drury....
Compact
Character:
Compact was a British television soap opera shown by the BBC between 1962 and 1965. The series was created by Hazel Adair and Peter Ling, who together went on to devise Crossroads. In contrast to the kitchen sink realism of Coronation Street, Compact was a distinctly middle-class serial, set in the more "sophisticated" arena of magazine publishing. An early "avarice" soap, it took the viewer into the business workplace, and aligned the professional lives of the characters with more personal stor...
Rush
Character: Supt. James Kendall
Rush was an Australian television series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 1974 and 1976. The first 13 episodes were produced in 1974 and filmed in black and white. In 1976, 13 more episodes were produced, in colour, in conjunction with French production company Antenne 2. Each series featured a different cast with the exception of John Waters....
Man in a Suitcase
Character:
Accused of treason, a former U.S. intelligence officer based in London tries to clear his name, taking on freelance jobs around Europe as he searches for answers....
Home and Away
Character: Tom Knight
Home and Away is set in the fictional town of Summer Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales, and follows the personal and professional lives of the people living in the area. The show initially focused on the Fletcher family, Pippa and Tom Fletcher and their five foster children Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport and Sally Keating, who would go on to become one of the show's longest-running characters. The show also originally and currently focuses on the Stewart family....
The Flying Doctors
Character: Warren
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...
The Sullivans
Character: Admiral Spencer / Major Greenwell
The Sullivans is an Australian drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran on the Nine Network from 1976 until 1983. The series told the story of an average middle-class Melbourne family and the effect World War II had on their lives. It was a consistent ratings success in Australia, and also became popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Gibraltar and New Zealand....
Anzacs
Character: Sir Rupert Barrington
Anzacs was a 1985 5-part Australian miniseries set in World War I. The series follows the lives of a group of young Australian men who enlist in the 8th Battalion of the First Australian Imperial Force in 1914, fighting first at Gallipoli in 1915, and then on the Western Front for the remainder of the war....
Rafferty's Rules
Character: Mathew
Rafferty's Rules was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1990 on the Seven Network. Rafferty's Rules was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead...
Bodyline
Character: Joseph Lyons (Prime Minister)
Dramatization of the 1932/33 Test cricket series between England and Australia. Played in Australia, the series gained notoriety in Australian and worldwide cricketing history for the fact that the English team (headed by captain Douglas Jardine) applied a bowling technique called "leg theory", or more commonly, Bodyline. This technique involved bowlers bowling the ball directly at the batsman's body, and resulted in many of the Australian team receiving numerous bruises and injuries, with batsm...
Grass Roots
Character: Monty Chesney
Grass Roots is an Australian television series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 2000 and 2003. The series is set around the fictional Arcadia Waters Council near Sydney, and was primarily a satirical look at the machinations of local government. It was written by Geoffrey Atherden. Part of the series was filmed in the inner west Sydney suburb of Concord. Many external shots of Arcadia waters Council chambers used Concord Council Chambers as a setting and as was other...
All Saints
Character: Bill Weiner
Medical drama focusing on the working and personal lives of the doctors and nurses working on the front line of a busy inner city Emergency Department at All Saints Hospital....
Movie Credits
The Long Arm
Character: P.C. at Hospital (uncredited)
Scotland Yard detectives attempt to solve a spate of safe robberies across England beginning with clues found at the latest burglary in London. The film is notable for using a police procedural style made popular by Ealing in their 1950 film The Blue Lamp. It is known in the US as The Third Key....
The Year My Voice Broke
Character: Headmaster
Set in 1962, a young prepubescent boy in rural Australia watches painfully as his best friend and first love blossoms into womanhood and falls for a thuggish rugby player, changing the lives of everyone involved....
Sea of Sand
Character: Sgt Nesbitt
A small British army team is sent deep behind enemy lines to destroy a German petrol dump as part of the preparation for a major attack in the North African campaign. Sea of Sand was distributed in the US in a shortened version, Desert Patrol....
Where Eagles Dare
Character: Carpenter
World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late....
Carry On Cruising
Character: Jenkins
Captain Crowther's lot is not a happy one! Five of his crew have to be replaced and at such short notice before the voyage begins there isn't much to choose from. Not only does he get the five most incompetent shipmates ever to sail the seven seas, but the passengers turn out to be a rather strange bunch too. The SS Happy Wanderer will never be the same....
Breaker Morant
Character: Col. Ian (Johnny) Hamilton
During the Boer War, three Australian lieutenants are on trial for shooting Boer prisoners. Though they acted under orders, they are being used as scapegoats by the General Staff, who hopes to distance themselves from the irregular practices of the war. The trial does not progress as smoothly as expected by the General Staff, as the defence puts up a strong fight in the courtroom....
The Black Rider
Character: Ted Lintott
When young reporter and amateur biker Jerry Marsh investigates a mysterious hooded figure on a motorbike, he discovers crooks hiding out in a ruined castle with atomic sabotage on their minds......
The Stolen Airliner
Character: Flight Sergeant Watkins
Three air cadets foil Revolutionaries who are plotting to steal an airliner....
Phar Lap
Character: Lachlan McKinnon
Phar Lap, the big bold chestnut reigned as the king of the turf in the depression that gripped Australia of the 1930s. From his humble beginnings the New Zealand bred horse raced on to become the hero of a nation....
Blood of the Vampire
Character: Dr. John Pierre
A man and wife are terrorized by Mad Scientist Dr. Callistratus who was executed but has returned to life with a heart transplant. Along with his crippled assistant Carl, the 'anemic' Mad Scientist, believed to be a vampire, conducts blood deficiency research on the inmates of a prison hospital for the criminally insane to sustain his return to life....
Clinic Exclusive
Character: Bernard Wilcox
A beautiful massage parlor/sex clinic owner financially & emotionally mistreats her customers....
Sirens
Character: Bishop of Sydney
In 1930s Australia, Anglican clergyman Anthony Campion and his prim wife, Estella, are asked to visit noted painter Norman Lindsay, whose planned contribution to an international art exhibit is considered blasphemous. While Campion and Lindsay debate, Estella finds herself drawn to the three beautiful models sitting for the painter's current work, freethinking Sheela, sensual Pru and virginal Giddy....
Devil's Point
Character: Williams
A Thames River barge operator finds a mysterious package dropped by smugglers....
A Town Like Alice
Character: Ben
In 1941 Malaysia, the advancing Japanese army captures a lot of British territory very quickly. The men are sent off to labor camps, but they have no plan on what to do with the women and children of the British....
Blonde Blackmailer
Character: Johnson
A man (Richard Arlen) wants answers when he gets out of prison after spending seven years for a murder he did not commit....
The Night We Called It a Day
Character: Rex Hooper
Based on the true events surrounding Frank Sinatra's tour of Australia. When Sinatra calls a local reporter a "two-bit hooker", every union in the country black-bans the star until he issues an apology....
Dangerous Voyage
Character: John Drew
A yacht in the English Channel is helped to port - when the police arrive there are no crew, no papers and no clues. What is the mystery of the ghost ship?...
Stop Press Girl
Character: Hero in cinema sequence
A young woman leaves her backwards hometown to go to London to find a runaway suitor. What she doesn't know is that she has inherited a strange ability; if she's in the vicinity of a machine for more than fifteen minutes, it stops working....
The Highest Honour
Character: Lieutenant Commander Hubert Marsham
After a highly successful raid on Singapore Harbour, soldiers of Z Special Unit lead a new expedition in Singapore, with disastrous results....
The Drayton Case
Character: Henley's Assistant
During the early years of World War II, a bomb from a German airplane uncovers the corpse of a strangled woman....
Dentist in the Chair
Character: Michaels
The misfortunes that befall three dental students when they become unwitting accessories to a burglary....
Robbery Under Arms
Character: George Storefield
During the mid 1860s, brothers Dick and Jim Marston are drawn into a life of crime by their ex-convict father Ben and his friend, infamous cattlethief Captain Starlight. Making their way to Melbourne with the proceeds of a recent raid, the brothers meet and romance the Morrison sisters, Kate and Jean, whom they eventually marry; but just as they are poised to start a new life in America, Captain Starlight and his gang arrive in town, planning a raid at the local bank....
Highway to Battle
Character: Ransome
Months before the out break of WWII, suspicion falls on a German ambassador when one of his envoys fails to return to Berlin. The arrival of two Gestapo agents searching for the missing man causes the ambassador and his family to rethink their Nazi allegiance but is it too late to escape from Hitler's evil grasp?...
The Interrupted Journey
Character: the first workman
When John North, a budding author, pulls the communication cord of a late night train that is taking him away on a weekend with his publishers wife, he sets in motion a series of events that lead to a train crash, a murder and a police man hunt, but all is not what it seems....
Love In Limbo
Character: Cyril Williams
Ken Riddle (Craig Adams), to whom sex is a mystery, joins his two mates from work, Arthur (Russell Crowe) and Barry (Aden Young), on a trip to Kalgoorlie’s infamous red light street in a fumbling attempt to collectively lose their virginity. Puffing on Lucky Strikes lit by Zippos, driving Studebakers adorned with tailfins, all the while shaking, rattling and rolling, the characters in Love in Limbo are innocent of greed, unaware of the world’s looming crisis, free of flower power and safe from ...
Not Tonight, Darling
Character: Alex / Karen's lover
A lonely 'Stay-at-Home' Housewife is being watched every night through the bathroom window by a 'Peeping Tom', who is being put up to it by his friend. She eventually finds out and gets her revenge on them....
Paradise Road
Character: Mr. Dickson
A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II....
Talk of a Million
Character: Jack Murnahan
A family reduced to imminent poverty by the father's disinclination to work; an American lawyer looking for the heir to half a million pounds; the scene is set for a hilarious tale of creative deception!...
Alison's Birthday
Character: Dr. Jeremy Lyall
During a Ouija board session with her teenaged friends, 16-year-old Alison gets a message from beyond the grave not to go home for her birthday three years later....
Identity Unknown
Character: Ken
Two reporters, a youth and a girl, find romance during interviews with relatives and friends of passengers in an ill-fated airliner....
Dead Lucky
Character: Mike Billing
Mike Billing's newspaper series about quasi-illegal gambling parties in Mayfair have so far been works more of imagination than genuine journalism. But when he and his columnist girlfriend, Jenny Drew, finally manage to infiltrate one of them, it leads quickly to trouble. The party's organiser is found murdered the next morning, and a number of suspects begin to emerge. But which of them killed Lucky Lewis?...
Deathcheaters
Character:
Two best friends, Vietnam War veterans-turned-stuntmen, are sent as spies to the Philippines on a top secret mission for the Australian government....
Oh! What a Lovely War
Character: Australian Soldier
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare....
Call Me Mr. Brown
Character: Captain Ritchie
Based on the 1971 true story known as "The Great Plane Robbery", this tele-movie tells the story of Peter Macari alias Mr. Brown. Under a grand extortion scam, he steals $500,000 in cash from Australian airlines company Qantas. This begins the start of a major international manhunt to catch a thief who is now living the high life from the spoils of his heist....
Carry On Follow That Camel
Character: Ship's Officer
Bertram Oliphant 'Bo' West wants to clear his unjustly smeared reputation, so he joins the Foreign Legion—with Simpson his manservant in tow. But the fort they get posted to is full of eccentric legionnaires, and there's trouble brewing with the locals too. Unbeknown to Bo, his lady love has followed him in disguise....
Encore
Character: Young Husband
Encore is a 1951 anthology film composed of adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Ant and the Grasshopper", directed by Pat Jackson and adapted by T. E. B. Clarke; "Winter Cruise", helmed by Anthony Pelissier, screenplay by Arthur Macrae; "Gigolo and Gigolette", directed by Harold French, written by Eric Ambler. It is the last film in a Maugham trilogy, preceded by Quartet and Trio....
Demolition
Character:
When British Intelligence, following a series of experiments designed to increase alertness of long-distance lorry drivers through use of tonal repetition, discovers chordation that completely erases all memory, it is obvious that such a cleansed mind may be programmed to perform any type of action. Erstwhile agent Peter Clarke inactive for years, is chosen as courier to transport an audio tape of the tones to his native Australia....
Muriel's Wedding
Character: Priest
A young social outcast in Australia steals money from her parents to finance a vacation where she hopes to find happiness, and perhaps love....
Double Sculls
Character: Stuart
A man tries to rehabilitate his alcoholic friend by entering them both into the Australian national rowing championships....
Vietnam
Character: Dave the Spook
The trials and tribulations of the Goddard family after the entry of Australia into the Vietnam War....
Danger Within
Character: Capt. Pat Foster
Drama set in an Italian prisoner of war camp during World War 2, where a group of British soldiers find their plans for escape thwarted by a mysterious traitor in their midst....
The Man Who Sued God
Character: Cardinal
A lawyer becomes a fisherman from frustration. When his one piece of property, his boat, is struck by lightning and destroyed he is denied insurance money because it was “an act of God”. He re-registers as a lawyer and sues the insurance company and, as God’s representative, The Church....
A Matter of WHO
Character: Dr. Blake
Health officials from the World Health Organization link a smallpox outbreak in Europe to oil drilling in the Middle East....
The Mouse on the Moon
Character: Pilot
Sequel to The Mouse that Roared; The Tiny Country of Grand Fenwick has a hot water problem in the castle. To get the money necessary to put in a new set of plumbing, they request foreign aid from the U.S. for Space Research. The Russians then send aid as well to show that they too are for the internationalization of space. While the grand Duke is dreaming of hot baths, their one scientist is slapping together a rocket. The U.S. and Soviets get wind of the impending launch and try and beat them t...
Black and White
Character: Chief Justice Napier
Australia, 1958. When a nine year old white girl is found murdered, police are quick to arrest illiterate Aborigine, Max Stuart. Under interrogation Max admits to the killing. With a legal system compromised by intimidation tactics, the skills of his two gifted but naïve defense lawyers are put to the test....
Frauds
Character: Judge
The film is a story of the ways in which insurance investigator Roland Copping interferes in and manipulates the lives of others with outrageous games and gimmicks. Eventually he becomes involved in an escalating vendetta with a couple who make an unusual insurance claim....
Deadline
Character: Prime Minister
A journalist sets out to report on a minor earthquake in the Australian outback, and finds that the tremor was a result of a small nuclear explosion - part of an extortion threat that has the government fearing nuclear blackmail. With the help of local reporters, and despite the harassment of the security agencies, he sets out to avert the crisis....
The Baby and the Battleship
Character: Second Sailor at Dance
After a quayside mix-up with the Italian family of his fiancée, Able Seaman Knocker White finds himself literally left holding the baby. Unable to return it before his ship sails he enlists the help of best mate Puncher Roberts to smuggle the child aboard. But babies are surprisingly demanding and gradually the whole crew is drawn into helping keep it fed and washed - and undiscovered. Even so, the officers above deck start to puzzle over the increasingly strange happenings on board....