Helmut Bakaitis
Helmut Bakaitis (born September 26, 1944 in Lauban , Province of Silesia ) is an Australian director , actor and screenwriter .
Life
Helmut Bakaitis was born in 1944 in the small town of Lauban, which at that time still belonged to the province of Silesia, as the son of a Lithuanian family who had left the Baltic States in 1943 before the advancing Red Army. The family settled in Australia in 1950, where Bakaitis was harassed by classmates because of his name and accent. He quickly became enthusiastic about the cinema and the theater and founded his first theater group while still at school, in which he also took over the direction of the first productions.
At the age of 16 he left home and worked as a stenographer. He received a scholarship to the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where he studied until 1965.
After that he worked as an actor in various theaters. Bakaitis was the long-time director of the South Australian Theater Company, where he primarily promoted youth theater. In 1975 he went to Great Britain, where he studied in Newcastle upon Tyne . He then worked in the Round House and Jackson's Lane theaters in London . He returned to Australia to take over the artistic direction of the St Martin's Youth Arts Center in Melbourne, which he co-founded . After various activities for other Australian theaters, he taught directing at NIDA from 1997 to 2007.
Since the 1970s, Bakaitis appeared in various film and television productions. Internationally, he was best known for his role as an architect in the films Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions .
Filmography (selection)
- 1971: Stork
- 1972: Shirley Thompson versus the Aliens
- 1985: The Heart on the Sleeve (I Can't Get Started)
- 1988: Melba (miniseries, 4 episodes)
- 1998: A Difficult Woman (miniseries, 3 episodes)
- 2003: Matrix Reloaded (The Matrix Reloaded)
- 2003: Matrix Revolutions (The Matrix Revolutions)
- 2005: The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (short film, speaking role)
- 2005: The Illustrated Family Doctor
- 2006: Happy Feet
- 2007: Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance
- 2009: Lucky Country
- 2015: Crushed
- 2015: The Moment of Truth (Truth)
- 2016: Liberty Equality Fraternity: Live
- 2016: Hacksaw Ridge - The Decision (Hacksaw Ridge)
- 2017: Out of the Shadows
- 2018: Jack Irish (TV series, 5 episodes)
- 2020: Stateless (TV series, 2 episodes)
Web links
- Helmut Bakaitis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Anne Pender: Helmut Bakaitis: The Art of the Theater . In: austlit.edu.au, December 2016.
- ↑ All alumni . In: nida.edu.au, accessed on August 26, 2020.
- ↑ a b c d Helmut Bakaitis . In: cameronsmanagement.com.au, accessed on August 26, 2020.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bakaitis, Helmut |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian actor, director and screenwriter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 26, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lauban , Silesia |