Hugh Keays-Byrne

Hugh Keays-Byrne

Hugh Keays-Byrne (May 18, 1947 – December 2, 2020) was a British-Australian actor and film director. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was best known for playing the main antagonist in two films from the Mad Max franchise: Toecutter in Mad Max (1979), and Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He also played Toad in the 1974 biker film Stone, and Grunchlk on the science fiction series Farscape. Keays-Byrne was born in Srinagar, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (part of the British Raj then, India now) to British parents; his family returned to Britain when India was partitioned. He began his career as a stage actor. Keays-Byrne made his first television appearance in 1967 on the British television programme Boy Meets Girl. He was part of Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which toured Australia in 1973. Keays-Byrne decided to remain in Australia after the tour ended. In 1974, he acted in the TV movie Essington, then made his first film appearance in the motorcycle picture Stone (1974). This was followed by supporting roles in films like The Man from Hong Kong (1975), Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The Trespassers (1976) and Snapshot (1979). After his first starring role in the 1978 TV movie Death Train, Keays-Byrne was cast as the violent gang leader Toecutter in Mad Max (1979). Director George Miller had Keays-Byrne and the other actors for the gang travel from Sydney to Melbourne in a group on motorcycles, as there was no money for airplane tickets. In an early international print of the film, Keays-Byrne was dubbed with a bad American accent, which Miller later regretted. Keays-Byrne then continued to act in post-apocalyptic and science fiction films like The Chain Reaction (1980), Strikebound (1984), Starship (1985) and The Blood of Heroes (1989). In 1992, he made his directorial debut and acted in the film Resistance. He also appeared in TV miniseries adaptations of Moby Dick (1998) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1999). Keays-Byrne played Grunchlk in the science fiction television series Farscape (1999–2003) and its conclusion Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004). George Miller also cast him as the Martian Manhunter in the planned 2009 movie Justice League: Mortal. Keays-Byrne returned to the Mad Max franchise in the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road as the main villain Immortan Joe. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning 6, and Keays-Byrne was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. Description above from the Wikipedia article Hugh Keays-Byrne, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For: Acting

Born: Kashmir, India, 1947-05-18

Died: 2020-12-02

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1974	Stone	Toad	61
2	1975	Polly My Love		0
3	1975	The Man from Hong Kong	Morrie Grosse	67
4	1976	Mad Dog Morgan	Simon	60
5	1976	The Trespassers	Frank	0
6	1977	Barnaby and Me	Huggins	48
7	1978	The Death Train		50
8	1978	Blue Fin	Stan	60
9	1979	Mad Max	Toecutter	67
10	1979	Snapshot	Linsey	55
11	1980	The Chain Reaction	Eagle	55
12	1983	Going Down	Bottom	40
13	1984	Where the Green Ants Dream	Mining Executive	69
14	1984	Strikebound	Idris Williams	53
15	1984	Lorca and the Outlaws	Danny	36
16	1985	Burke & Wills	Ambrose Kyte	49
17	1986	For Love Alone	Andrew	34
18	1986	Kangaroo	Kangaroo	60
19	1987	Treasure Island	(voice)	70
20	1987	Les Patterson Saves the World	Inspector Farouk	48
21	1988	Badlands 2005	Moondance	50
22	1988	Dadah Is Death	Hammed	40
23	1989	The Blood of Heroes	Lord Vlle	59
24	1992	Resistance	Peter	50
25	1999	Voyage au centre de la terre	McNiff	0
26	1999	Huntsman 5.1	Bain	0
27	2011	Sleeping Beauty	Man 3	53
28	2015	Mad Max: Fury Road	Immortan Joe	76
29	2015	The Madness of Max	Self	72
30	2017	Going Mad: The Battle of Fury Road	Self	69

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1998	Moby Dick	Mr. Stubb	59
2	1999	Farscape	Grunchlk	79
3	1999	Journey to the Center of the Earth	McNiff	58
4	2004	Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars	Grunchlk	77

Hugh Keays-Byrne

Film

Television