ROY BILLING
He’s come to a sticky end at the hands of an alien armed with a ray gun, been bashed to death with an iron bar, dropped dead from a heart attack, died from a suicidal overdose, and lost a battle with prostate cancer – and lived to do it again. For actor Roy Billing, it’s all in a day’s work.
“I must be reasonably convincing when it comes to my on-screen deaths – I’ve notched up a few over the years,” he says. “I’ve seen my wife Linda shed the occasional tear as she watched my demise.” Not that she’s always so sympathetic. “Sometimes she’ll just look at me and say, ‘Are you my husband or some Mafia thug?’ Perhaps that’s when I’m too convincing…”
The Kiwi-born actor has become so famous in Australia for roles such as organised-crime boss “Aussie Bob” Trimbole in the TV series Underbelly and colourful racing identity Harry Strang in the hugely successful TV series Jack Irish (reviewed on page 103) that he only has to step out the door for someone to ask for a selfie with him. Later this year, he’ll be seen dying a slow death in Foxtel’s new 10-part black-comedy drama series The End, among a cast including Frances O’Connor (The Missing, Mr Selfridge) and Dame Harriet Walter (The Crown, Succession).
Yet despite the success that’s come his way since moving to Sydney almost 30 years ago, Billing has now quietly slipped
