Veteran Australian actor Peter Aanensen, best known for Bellbird, Prisoner and Blue Heelers, has died aged 92.
He died on May 3rd following a chest infection.
Port Melbourne-born Aanensen was a prolific performer on Australian stage and screen, with 70 credits on IMDb.
He started in repertory theatre in Melbourne before being cast as ‘Roo’ in the touring production of The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in 1959.
Early screen roles included Seagulls over Sorrento, Consider Your Verdict, Adventures of the Seaspray, Hunter, Riptide, Barrier Reef, Boney, Ryan, The Box, Division 4, And the Big Men Fly, Matlock Police and Homicide.
He appeared as barman Jim Bacon on Bellbird for 1381 of its 1,562 episodes from 1968 – 1976.
It cemented his face as a true blue Aussie character, which would see him feature in countless more productions including Power Without Glory, Bluey, The Sullivans, Skyways, Cop Shop, Women of the Sun, Holiday Island, Sons & Daughters, Special Squad, Carson’s Law, Five Mile Creek, The Flying Doctors, Something in the Air and The Secret Life of Us.
On Prisoner he would play two different detectives across multiple episodes, while there was a recurring role on Blue Heelers as Merv Poole.
Film credits included Alvin Purple, Dusty, Cactus, Shame, Evil Angels, Road to Nhill, The Craic, Crackerjack alongside Bill Hunter and Frank Wilson, and Bad Eggs.
Family remember his love of cricket, the Hawthorn Football Club and sport in general.
“He was a lovely, kind, down to earth man with a wicked sense of humour. He loved musical theatre – we used to sing along with family and friends to the record player playing all the Broadway shows for hours on end. Friends from the industry, from the footy club, from all over the place – a crazy, fun upbringing,”
“In or around 1971, he suffered a compound fracture in his knee while filming Bellbird, which required two pins to be inserted. It troubled him for the rest of his life. He was on crutches for a few months but it didn’t stop the singing and dancing that went on in our house,” daughter Leah Aanensen recalls.
“One memorable Sunday night, Bob Wylie, a director at the ABC, came over with his wife and two daughters. The girls and my two sisters became the Bluebells, being directed by Bob, while Gaite Parisienne, featuring the Can Can, played on the record player and Stewart Faichney, a member of the Bellbird cast, did a Russian Cossack dance complete with bended knees. A 3am finish from memory. Pretty normal.”
In his retirement years, after the loss of wife Valerie in 2000 he enjoyed visitng the Mail Exchange hotel regularly, where he would sit with his book and a beer. He didn’t drink excessively, he just liked to be out among people and the staff got to know him well. On weekends, his longtime mate Les would come in and they would sit together and watch the footy and chat over a beer.
Family also noted he loved the camaraderie of the theatre, television and film fraternity and was “passionate about the way in which Australia has treated its First Nations peoples, and angry about the defeat of the Voice referendum, as he was habitually outraged about the inequity in the umpiring of Hawthorn matches where the umpires were always, always biased.”
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