Indigenous
Australian Actor best known for his roles in films such as Walkabout, Crocodile Dundee and Rabbit-Proof FenceAs the
British film-maker Nicolas Roeg was scouring Arnhem Land, in Australia’s Northern Territory, in search of an Indigenous Australian man to star in Walkabout (1971), he chanced upon the 16-year-old ceremonial dancer David Gulpilil. When asked his name, the teenager responded with the only English word he knew: “Yes.” Looking back on the film in 2015, he said: “I thought I was going to be John Wayne.”
Gulpilil, who has died of
cancer aged 68, was a more amorphous and mysterious presence. As if Roeg’s fragmented, free-associative storytelling was not startling enough, Gulpilil’s performance was a shock to the system for many viewers.