Biographer - Peter Fitzpatrick

Peter Fitzpatrick has managed to complete the impossible - a double biography of a father and son who were adept at leaving very little personal information. Peter has managed to garner copious information however, through the detective-like approach of the curious biographer. Using these discoveries, he has recorded perfect portraits and also extended our insight, by installing creative but inspired accounts of what it was to be these men, at crucial stages of their brilliant lives. He couldn't have picked a more disparate and fascinating familial duo 'The Two Thrings' is Peter's biography of both Frank Thring Senior and Frank Thring Junior. These two men had considerable influence in the evolution of an Australian entertainment industry. Frank Senior was a sideshow conjurer turned film impresario, who gave the nation its first foray into celluloid storytelling. Frank Junior, the son, was a flamboyant and outrageous actor of distinctive voice and girth who made his dent in Hollywood and returned to Australia to chart idiosyncratic roles in the theatre; eventually succumbing to self-parody and sorrow. They are a father and son, who never really knew each other but who forged similar careers in story-telling; sharing a considerable likeness in physicality and in their protection of self. Peter Fitzpatrick is a former adjunct professor of Performing Arts at Monash University, a writer, and a director of theatre - he was awarded a National Biography award for his account of the two men - THE TWO THRINGS. He joined STAGES to expand on our knowledge of this showbiz dynasty and to ponder the process of writing, and the craft of biography.