GREG ROWE ‘I’LL NEVER FORGET DAVID’S KINDNESS’
REMEMBERING STORM BOY HE WAS JUST A CHILD, BUT THE ACTOR FOUND A MENTOR IN HIS CO-STAR
It’s 45 years since Greg Rowe shot to fame in the classic, Storm Boy – yet now, the former Aussie child actor confesses to a secret fear of pelicans!
“I was terrified of them initially,” laughs the laid-back 56-year-old, remembering his feathered co-stars. “They’re pretty big birds and I was only little at the time, so they were basically my size.
“They were in the swimming pool in their trainer’s backyard when I went around to meet them. And I was quite intimidated – a pelican isn’t a bird you come into close contact with very often – but like most things, I got used to them and they got used to me.
“There were actually three pelicans playing the lead role of Mr Percival and they each had their own personality, you could tell them apart. The trainer would choose whichever bird happened to be in the best mood that day.
“It was pretty smart, because you didn’t want to do a scene with a cranky pelican, but unfortunately nobody could do anything about the poo,” chuckles the doting father of two, who grew up in Adelaide. “Yeah, there was a lot of pelican poo, but it came with the territory. You just learnt to deal with it.”
Today, it’s several degrees below zero and Greg is striding through snow drifts beside Lake Ontario. Despite the rapturous reception for his first film role – the story of a lonely boy befriended by an Indigenous recluse – he walked away from show business in his late teens and is now a squash coach in Toronto, Canada.
But he never forgot the kindness of his Storm Boy mentor David Gulpilil, the multi-award-winning Indigenous star who took the nervous youngster under his wing from day one on the South Australian set.
“I was a little kid, no experience, meeting all these people and he just came right up to me, a big smile on his face, and made me feel at ease straightaway,” Greg recalls of the much-loved Yolngu actor and dancer, who died last November at age 68.
“In his native language, he said: ‘I want you to call me big brother and I will call you little brother.’ And right from then he just made me feel completely relaxed, completely
comfortable, which was amazing for a timid kid like me. It was very sad news to hear he had gone.”
Back in 1976, Storm Boy was nominated for 11 AFI Awards and won four – including Best Film – going on to become an all-time family favourite and grossing $2,645,000 at the box office.
Greg continued acting until his last year in high school, when he was offered a part in a Sydney-based soapie. He refused, which is surprising until you discover he started acting by accident.
“My sister and I entered a modelling competition at a local department store and I came second,” he grins. “Part of my prize was a six-week acting course and, as a result, an Adelaide agency put me on their books for work.
“So the first thing I ever did was a TV commercial, where I was one of 20 kids, and then another one and then the next thing was trying out for a movie – and that was Storm Boy!
“It was a wonderful experience, but acting was never something I pursued. It was just a strange series of fortuitous circumstances that led to me being in movies. I never saw myself being an actor for the rest of my life.
“I didn’t want to move to Sydney for the soap opera – that would have meant skipping my final exams. So that was the moment, I guess, where I just decided that was it. I said no to the opportunity and was able to move on quite easily.”
Greg met his Canadian wife-to-be, Jennifer, when they were both backpacking in London. Strangely enough, he had applied for a Canadian work visa a few days before they crossed paths.
“So once again, the stars aligned,” he explains.
The couple went on to have two daughters – Natasha, now 23, and 20-year-old Chloe – and with Jennifer’s corporate career booming, Greg left his job in financial services to become a house husband.
“We were lucky to be in a position where one of us could stay home, and it made sense for me to do it,” he smiles. “But as the kids got older there was less and less for me to do, and then the squash coach thing came up at exactly the right time. Sheer serendipity!”
Does he ever regret giving up his shot at movie stardom? “Honestly, no,” he says. “Truth be told, it always made me uncomfortable to see myself on-screen. I would avoid it.
“But the kids saw Storm Boy when they were little, which was a strange experience for them. ‘It’s Dad, right?’ It was a novelty for sure and they got a kick out of it, but put it this way, they don’t ask to watch it every Christmas or anything!”