Steve Dodd

Steve Dodd (1 June 1928 – 10 November 2014) was an Aboriginal Australian actor, notable for playing Aboriginal characters across seven decades of Australian film. After beginning his working life as a stockman and rodeo rider, 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. Life and career outside acting Stephen Dodd, also known as Mullawa, Mulla Walla, or Mullawalla (flying fish), was an Arrernte Aboriginal man from central Australia. Sources vary regarding his place of birth, and whether it was in the Northern Territory or South Australia: a 1966 article in the New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board magazine Dawn states he was born in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and one 1973 newspaper source states he was born at the Hermannsburg Mission, to the south-west of Alice Springs. However, his entry on the Department of Veterans' Affairs' Nominal Roll of Australian Veterans of the Korean War states he was born at Oodnadatta, in the far north of South Australia. A 1953 newspaper report about his return from service in Korea states that he was from Coober Pedy in the far north of South Australia, and had been a resident of the Colebrook Home for Aboriginal Children just outside the small town of Quorn in the Flinders Ranges further south, which housed Aboriginal children from northern South Australia; some residents subsequently identified as members of the Stolen Generations. In 1969, Dodd visited the now relocated home in Eden Hills for the 80th birthday celebrations for Sister Delia Rutter, who had looked after him as a boy when the home was at Quorn. The only birth date record is in the Korean War nominal roll, which gives 1 June 1928.