Bill Hunter, Australian Actor in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, has died...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Bill Hunter, the archetypal working-class Australian of a multitude of movies including “Muriel’s Wedding,” “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” and “Strictly Ballroom,” died on Saturday in Melbourne. He was 71.

The cause was cancer, his manager, Mark Morrissey, said.

An actor with a distinctively broad and gravelly accent and an authoritative, no-nonsense style, Mr. Hunter won acclaim for his roles as a doomed army major in Peter Weir’s World War I drama “Gallipoli” (1981); a meddling dance judge in Baz Luhrmann’s romantic comedy “Strictly Ballroom” (1992); the father of the bride in P. J. Hogan’s “Muriel’s Wedding” (1994); and an open-minded mechanic in the company of drag queens in Stephan Elliott’s “Priscilla” (1994).

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/movies/bill-hunter-actor-who-typified-australia-dies-at-71.html?_r=1&hpw

His work will be seen by generations.

Condolences to his family.