Steve Dodd, also known as Mullawa or Mulla walla, was an Arunta or Arrente Indigenous man from central Australia. Dodd was given his first film roles by prominent Australian actor Chips Rafferty. His career was interrupted by six years in the Australian Army during the Korean War, and limited by typecasting. Dodd performed in several major Australian movies, including Gallipoli and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, in which he played Tabidgi, the murdering uncle of the lead character. He also held minor parts in Australia-based international film productions including The Coca-Cola Kid, Quigley Down Under and The Matrix.
About Steve Dodd in brief
Steve Dodd, also known as Mullawa or Mulla walla, was an Arunta or Arrente Indigenous man from central Australia. Dodd was given his first film roles by prominent Australian actor Chips Rafferty. His career was interrupted by six years in the Australian Army during the Korean War, and limited by typecasting. Dodd performed in several major Australian movies, including Gallipoli and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, in which he played Tabidgi, the murdering uncle of the lead character. He also held minor parts in Australia-based international film productions including The Coca-Cola Kid, Quigley Down Under and The Matrix. He likewise appeared in minor roles in early Australian television series, such as Homicide and Rush, as well as later series including The Flying Doctors. In 2013, Dodd was honoured with the Jimmy Little Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19th Deadly Awards at the Sydney Opera House. He died in November 2014, aged 86, at St Georges Basin on the south coast of New South Wales, where he lived for the last two decades of his life. It is unclear if Dodd was from the Northern Territory or South Australia: one source states he was born in Alice Springs, and another states hewas born at the Hermannsburg Mission, to the town’s south-west.
However a third source suggests Oodnadatta, across the border in South Australia, while Dodd himself, in a 2011 interview, stated he was South Australian. Dodd has stated that he demonstrated boomerang and spear-throwing at Expo 70, and at an Olympic Games. He was also a participant in a re-enactment of Captain James Cook’s landing in Australia, as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations. In 1966 he was reported to be a bachelor; later sources shed no light on his marital status. In 2011 he indicated that he “was the first Aboriginal to sign up from South Australia to go to Korea”. A photograph of him in uniform in Korea is amongst images on permanent display at the Australian War Memorial. In 1971 he remarked in an interview that his father and six brothers were living in theNorthern Territory. In 1985, he was living in Manly, New South NSW, having spent fifteen years in Sydney’s northern suburbs. He was a member of the Rough Riders Association, and gave exhibition rides at the Calgary Stampede in 1964. Dodd worked as a stockman, horse breaker and rodeo rider prior to and during his acting career, including a period working for rider Smoky Dawson.
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