43 Facts About Jack Charles

Jack Charles, known as Uncle Jack Charles, was an Australian stage and screen actor and activist, known for his advocacy for Aboriginal people.

Jack Charles was involved in establishing the first Indigenous theatre in Australia, co-founding Nindethana Theatre with Bob Maza in Melbourne in 1971.

Jack Charles spent many decades in and out of prison and as a heroin addict, which he ascribed largely to trauma that he experienced as a child, as one of the Stolen Generations.

Jack Charles was born on 5 September 1943 at the Royal Women's Hospital, Carlton, in Melbourne, Victoria, to a Bunurong mother, Blanche, who was 15 years old at the time, and a Wiradjuri father, Hilton.

Jack Charles' great-great-grandfather was a Djadjawurrung man, among the activists who resisted government policy at the Coranderrk reserve in Victoria in 1881.

Jack Charles was a victim of the Australian Government's forced assimilation program which took him from his mother as an infant, and which produced what is known as the Stolen Generations.

Jack Charles tells how his mother sneaked out of the Royal Women's Hospital and took him to a "blakfella camp" near Shepparton and Mooroopna, but the authorities came and took him when he was four months old.

Jack Charles was not told that he was Aboriginal, and thought he was an orphan until he later discovered the existence of his still living mother.

Jack Charles connected with some other siblings when still a teenager, and later learned more about his birth family and ancestors.

Jack Charles later said that the New Theatre, with whom he spent seven years, was his NIDA, as well as like family to him.

Jack Charles is often referred to as "the grandfather of Indigenous theatre" because of this early work.

Jack Charles helped to develop the National Black Theatre in Redfern, Sydney.

In 1974, Jack Charles played Bennelong in the Old Tote Theatre production of Michael Boddy's Cradle of Hercules, which was presented at the Sydney Opera House as part of its opening season.

Jack Charles was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Play for his performance in the play, which toured across Australia and internationally, including Japan, Canada, Britain and the United States, for ten years.

In 2012, Jack Charles performed in the Sydney Festival production I am Eora.

In 1972, Jack Charles auditioned for the role of the Australian Indigenous title character in the television show Boney but was declined.

Jack Charles was the subject of Amiel Courtin-Wilson's documentary film, Bastardy, which followed him for seven years.

Jack Charles played Chief Great Little Panther in Joe Wright's 2015 fantasy film Pan.

Jack Charles appeared in several episodes of the sketch comedy show, Black Comedy, between 2014 and 2020, his final role being that of a judge.

In 2016, Jack Charles appeared in two episodes of the television horror drama series Wolf Creek.

Jack Charles was interviewed on ABC Radio many times over the years, by Larissa Behrendt, Daniel Browning, and Richard Fidler on Conversations, among others.

Jack Charles was jailed 22 times, saying later that he gave up heroin at the age of 60, and had not been in jail since 2009.

Jack Charles saw his robberies as "rent collection" for stolen Aboriginal land, and attributes his and many other Aboriginal people's substance abuse to the trauma of dispossession and being removed from his family.

Jack Charles gave up heroin after two years on methadone as part of the Marumali prison program, which was delivered by Aunty Lorraine Peeters and her daughter Shaan.

Jack Charles wanted to become completely clean by the end of a documentary film that was being made about him, which took longer than expected because of being on methadone for two years, eventually being released in 2008.

Jack Charles developed an interest in pottery in prison in Castlemaine in the 1970s, and after developing his skills he taught other prisoners in what was a successful program.

Jack Charles enjoyed creating works through his lifetime, finding the practice meditative.

Jack Charles received a Christian education from the Salvation Army, and continued to observe Christian values into his 70s, when he told Geraldine Doogue in 2017:.

Jack Charles liked to believe that Bundjil, the great wedge-tailed eagle, the ancestor spirit and creator of the Kulin land and its people, that had kept him alive through his darkest and riskiest moments in his life.

Jack Charles said that he had technically been dead medically before, and had attempted suicide once.

Jack Charles said that he had petitioned local councils and later the Victorian Minister for Aboriginal Affairs to create a community centre for people after their release from prison, but had not been listened to.

Jack Charles lobbied the Victorian Government to expunge criminal records after a period time, which brought about a change in the law enabling him to work in the state's prisons.

In 2017, Jack Charles gave a talk about his passion for prison mentoring at TEDx in Sydney, and his work with Uncle Archie Roach at the Archie Roach Foundation, followed by a performance of Roach's song "We Won't Cry" by the two of them.

Jack Charles is remembered as "the grandfather of Indigenous theatre" because of this early work.

Jack Charles died from a stroke on 13 September 2022 at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, eight days after his 79th birthday, and was given a farewell by his family with a smoking ceremony.

Jack Charles's death was widely reported in the Australian and international press, with prime minister of Australia Anthony Albanese, musician and comic Adam Briggs, actor Meyne Wyatt, and Aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe tweeting their respects, and Albanese giving an oral tribute, saying that he left a "joyous legacy" and that Australia had "lost a legend of Australian theatre, film and creative arts".

Jack Charles was the subject of Amiel Courtin-Wilson's 2008 documentary Bastardy.

Jack Charles' fifth great-grandfather was Mannalargenna, who was a highly respected Aboriginal Tasmanian elder and leader, acting as emissary to surrounding clans in Tasmania.

Jack Charles's fourth great-grandmother, Woretemoeteyenner, was a strong Aboriginal Tasmanian woman who stood up to the sealers who decimated the population of seals that they relied on for food.

Jack Charles's grandmother, Annie Johnson, was an important person in the history of the Murray River region of Victoria.

Jack Charles was known for using her horse and dray for taking food to families when flu epidemics hit the local Aboriginal communities.

Jack Charles met his sisters, Esmae and Eva Jo Jack Charles, as a teenager, when he was living with his foster mother, and they visited him in prison in the 1980s.

Jack Charles met his mother in Swan Hill when he was 19.