Beloved ‘Down Under’ comedian Clarke dies at 68
Print Edition
AFTER Australia’s then-prime minister John Howard refused to formally apologize to indigenous Aboriginal people for past atrocities, an actor who happened to have the same name as the nation’s leader read out a moving apology on a television show.
The 2000 skit on “The Games” was one of many culturally iconic moments dreamed up by John Clarke, a comedian and political satirist beloved in both Australia and New Zealand.
Clarke’s family said the 68-year-old died on Sunday of natural causes while taking photographs of birds in the Grampians National Park, a three-hour drive from his home in Melbourne. Friend and former colleague Ross Stevenson said Clarke died from a heart attack.
His death had people from both countries reminiscing about the skits and songs Clarke performed that often touched on the essence of life Down Under.
The apology in “The Games,” a mock documentary about the 2000 Sydney Olympics, resonated and was later read out in Parliament, becoming part of the official record. “I speak for all Australians in expressing a profound sorrow to the Aboriginal people. I am sorry. We are sorry,” the actor John Howard says on the show. “Let the world know and understand, that it is with this sorrow, that we as a nation will grow and seek a better, a fairer and a wiser future.”
Born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, Clarke achieved fame at home before moving to Australia in the 1970s. He created the persona Fred Dagg, a gumboot-wearing farmer and archetypal good bloke. Clarke is survived by his wife Helen; daughters Lorin and Lucia; grandchildren Claudia and Charles; and son-in-law Stewart Thorn.
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