Max Phipps

Life and career

Phipps was born in Dubbo and grew up in Parkes. He started his acting training in Sydney at the age of 21, at the Ensemble Theatre. There he appeared in such productions as Buffalo Skinner, Long Day's Journey into Night, Fortune and Men's Eyes, The Removalists and Rooted. In the Sydney Opera House's inaugural season he played Harry Bustle in What If You Died Tomorrow?. In London he reprised this role, as well as appearing in Don's Party. He played Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show in Melbourne in 1975-77.

His most notable screen roles included The Toadie in Mad Max 2 (1981), Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the television mini-series The Dismissal (1983), Sir Frank Packer in True Believers (1988), and Queensland Police Commissioner Terry Lewis in the Four Corners TV documentary drama Police State (1989), which helped to bring about investigations into corruption within that state's police force and political system. He was nominated for an AFI award for his role in Stir (1980). Other films included The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), Thirst (1979), Nightmares (1980), Dead Easy (1982), The Return of Captain Invincible (1983), Nate and Hayes (1983), which was released in the United States as Savage Islands, Sky Pirates (1986) and What the Moon Saw (1990). He appeared as Detective Inspector Mcallister in the Morse episode "The Promised Land" in 1991

Death

He died from cancer in Sydney in August 2000, survived by his three siblings. He had never married.