In 2024 The Victorian Drama League announced a new perpetual award – The Alan Hopgood Hall of Fame Award to be presented annually at The VDL Awards Dinner.
Member Companies are invited to send written nominations (500-1000 words) to secretary@vdl.org.au by October 31.
Helen Ellis, who worked closely with Alan, has generously sponsored this award in honour of Alan, the man and his career.
NOMINATIONS – criteria.
Every member company can submit nominations to The VDL Committee of people they believe best represent someone who encapsulates everything that theatre means to us.
This person must have shown the spirit of kindness and endeavour, as well as being an outstanding contributor to their company or our theatre community as a whole.
This person can be behind the scenes, on stage, in the office, in the foyer, but absolutely has to be someone who has contributed over and above for a sustained period of time.
We want the champions, the ones who make us smile, who we know will be there if we need them, and who are there even without us asking and the ones who blow us away with their talent, regardless of the field – because that is who Alan was and will be always.
The awardee will be announced at The VDL Awards dinner and will be presented by Alan’s wife and best friend Gay Hopgood.
Alan Hopgood AM – writer, actor, producer, director, mentor, friend
29 September 1934 – 19 March 2022
I cannot even begin to list everything Alan Hopgood brought to the entertainment industry.
Alan was one of the finest people you could ever meet. Humble in the true sense of the word, accomplished, talented as both writer and actor, generous and encouraging. I was lucky to meet and work with him and to call him friend and mentor.
I will try and capture the essence of this wonderful man and why this new award is in his honour.
First of all – his accomplishments:
Alan’s first successful play, And the Big Men Fly, was about Australian rules football and was produced in 1963 by the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Russell Street Theatre in Melbourne. The play was adapted for TV by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973 and also as a telemovie. In 1964, he followed with The Golden Legion of Cleaning Women. In 1966 he produced Private Yuk Objects, which is believed to be the first play anywhere in the world on the subject of the Vietnam War.
Alan also wrote a number of film and television screenplays, including the comedy film Alvin Purple (1973), which was the most commercially successful Australian film of the early 1970s and to this day is a considered a cult classic.
Alan was one of the first contributors to and actors with what is now known as the Melbourne Theatre Company. He performed there for over ten years. His theatre acting credits include over 50 leading and supporting roles in plays including A View from a Bridge, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Crucible, and my personal favourites Visiting Mr Green and The Carer (which he also wrote and was originally performed famously by Bud Tingwell).
On Television, Alan was probably most well known as one of TV’s early ‘soap’ stars in Bellbird, in which he played the handsome town doctor for six years. He also performed in the later soaps, Prisoner (for which he also scripted many episodes) and Neighbours as Jack Lassiter.
Alan’s cinema credits include (but are not limited to) My Brilliant Career (1979), The Blue Lagoon (1980), Roadgames (1981), Evil Angels (1988, released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand) and The Man from Snowy River II (1988) and so many more.
He worked with a large number of actors including Frank Thring, Meryl Streep, Brooke Shields, Sam Neill, Judy Davis, and Nicholas Cage.
Alan was a multi award winner and was awarded the A.M. (Member of the Order of Australia) in 2005 for his services to the performing arts as an actor, playwright and producer, and to the community through raising awareness of men’s health issues.
Alan developed prostate cancer and based on his experience wrote a book titled Surviving Prostate Cancer: One Man’s Journey. He went on to write, produce and often act in a touring series of successful plays on men’s health, raising awareness with his inimitable wit, reminding men and families across the country to be proactive about their health, but always with a sense of humour.
Hopgood died from prostate cancer at the age of 87 on 19 March 2022.
Alan was even more than this list. He was a wonderful collaborator, a listener, a conversationalist, bloody good company, funny, dry, caring and loved a good glass of red. He was a legend, but most of all a husband, a dad, and a grandfather because family was everything and he was an all-round good bloke.
Helen Ellis