Max Gillies AM (born 16 November 1941 in Melbourne) is an Australian actor and is well known for his work in theatre and with caricatures. Prominent figures he has caricatured include; John Howard, Alexander Downer, Amanda Vanstone, Kerry Packer Rupert Murdoch, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II and many more.
Gillies was a founding member of an experimental theatre company, the Australian Performing Group, which was active throughout the 1970s.
In 1984 and 1985 he hosted the television program The Gillies Report on ABC TV. This was followed in 1986 by Gillies Republic and in 1992 by Gillies and Company. He was famous for being able to dress up and parody a wide range of political figures, both in these television series and in two live solo theatrical performances he delivered later – The Big Con and You’re Dreaming.
In July 2008 Gillies resurrected his caricatures of Australia’s former Prime Ministers in a live production of No Country for Old PMs: An Evening with Max Gillies at the Noosa Long Weekend festival.
He said in an interview with The Courier Mail that he and co-writer Guy Rundle were also watching the then Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, for a possible new caricature in a new production being developed. “I’m watching him closely” he said.
Gillies, through his television programs or theatre performances, has caricatured the following people:
- Australian Prime Ministers: Robert Menzies, William McMahon, Gough Whitlam, Malcolm Fraser, Robert Hawke, John Howard.
- Other Australian politicians: Alexander Downer, Amanda Vanstone Iain Sinclair, Philip Ruddock, Sir John Kerr, Don Chipp, Andrew Peacock, Fred Nile, Russ Hinze, Bob Santamaria, Gareth Evans
- Australian Premiers: Neville Wran, Joh Bjelke-Person
- Australian businessmen: Kerry Packer, Rupert Murcoch, Alan Bond, John Singleton, John Elliott
- Australian writers: Phillip Adams, Bob Ellis, Geoffrey Blainey, Clive James, Gerard Henderson.
- Foreign leaders: Ronald Reagan, Pik Botha, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Mikhail Gorbachev, David Lange, Queen Elizabeth II, George W. Bush, Pop John Paul II
- Other persons: Tony Barber, Sir David Attenborough, Jonathon Shire, D.D. McNicoll, Arthur Daley (a main character from Minder)
Gillies also played The Alien in As Time Goes By (1988), an Australian science fiction movie.
Gillies was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) in the 1990 Queen’s New Years Honours List for his services to the performing arts.
