John Meillon was an Australian character actor known for dramatic as well as comedy roles. John Meillon was born on May 1, 1934, and died on August 11, 1989. He was born in Mosman, New South Wales and director Bob Meillon (1943–2012) was his younger brother.

John Meillon is well-known for the roles he played in the films Crocodile Dundee and Crocodile Dundee II. He is also known to have run advertisements for Victoria Bitter beer. The appearance of John Meillon in the ABC’s radio serial Stumpy, marked the start of his acting career. He was then 11 years old and he was also made his his first stage appearance the following year.

He worked in England and while in England, he made a conscious effort to stay off Australian films. He played a recurring role in the television series My Name’s McGooley, What’s Yours? and later in 1968, he also featured in the spin-off, Rita and Wally.

He made appearances in two episodes of Skippy in 1968 and 1969. He won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role of ‘Casey’ in the film The Fourth Wish (1976). John Meillon was also used in voice-over work He was appointed an OBE in the 1979 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for service to theatre.

Meillon released the single “Tap Tap”/”Picture Show Man”, which peaked at number 80 on the Australian singles chart in 1977.

Some of the films John Meillon was featured in include On the Beach(1959), The Sundowners(1960), The Long and the Short and the Tall(1961), Watch It(1961), Sailor! (1961), Offbeat(1961), The Valiant(1962), Operation Snatch(1962), Billy Budd(1962), The Longest Day(1962), Cairo(1963) and The Running Man(1963).

In 1964, John Meillon played the role of Flight Lt. Gillibrand in 633 Squadron and played the role of Sergeant ‘Aussie’ Drake in the film titled Guns at Batasi. In both 1965 and 1966, he got featured in just two films; Dead Man’s Chest and They’re a Weird Mob In 1971, he was featured in Wake in Fright (aka Outback) and Walkabout. He has many more films and television series to his credit.

John Meillon’s Cause Of Death

John Meillon died on August 11, 1989. The cause of his death was cirrhosis.

It was reported that his body was in his home at Neutral Bay.

Meillon was posthumously awarded the Raymond Longford Lifetime Achievement Award.

Reference :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Meillon