{{Short description|Australian film director (1941–2020)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Use Australian English|date=November 2019}} {{infobox person | name = Sandy Harbutt | birth_place=Randwick, New South Wales, Australia | birth_date = 1941 | death_place = Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia | occupation = Actor, writer, director | death_date = 21 November 2020 (aged 79) }} '''Sandy Harbutt''' (1941 – 21 November 2020) was an Australian actor, writer and director, best known for the outlaw biker film, ''Stone'' (1974) starring his friend Ken Shorter. Although it was very successful at the box office and became a cult classic, it was the only feature he ever directed. He was once married to actress Helen Morse.<ref name="pike">Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p278</ref>
==Biography == Harbutt was born in Randwick, New South Wales and studied law before turning to advertising and then acting.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51186386 |title=Oh, to be a TV star-maker(Here's how...). |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=23 May 1962 |accessdate=28 March 2015 |page=37 Supplement: Teenagers' Weekly |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He worked extensively in theatre, particularly at Sydney's Ensemble Theatre. An early television appearance was with Shorter, as a pair of Bondi surfies who harass the Wells children in a 1967 color film episode of ''Adventures of the Seaspray. '' He had a regular role in the shortlived 1970 Australian TV series ''The Long Arm''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51274018 |title=MARRIAGE COMES BEFORE A CAREER. |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=12 June 1968 |accessdate=28 March 2015 |page=33 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
After making ''Stone'' he largely dropped out of screen acting, although he gave retrospective interviews for documentaries about the film and its place in the renaissance of Australian cinema. Harbutt died 21 November 2020 at Wollongong Hospital, aged 79.
==Unmade Projects== Harbutt only made one feature film. Among the projects he tried to make included: *''Strike'' about the Builders Labourers Federation<ref name="sandy">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/119639349/?terms=%22drums%20of%20mer%22%20idriess&match=1|title=Stone: bikie epic turns full circle|first=Garry|last=Maddox|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=16 June 1999|page=12}}</ref> *a film adaptation of ''Drums of Mer'' by Ion Idriess<ref name="stratton">David Stratton, ''The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival'', Angus & Robertson, 1980 p263</ref> *''The Reaper'' about a Nazi war criminal in Western Australia<ref name="sandy"/> *''Action'' a look at the film industry through the eyes of a stuntman<ref name="sandy"/> In 2009 it was reported he was working on a bikie musical.<ref>[http://www.swtafe.vic.edu.au/lrc/music/brock2009a.htm Alex Johnson, 'BAD SCENE: Movie turns sour for Brocklehurst'], ''Warrnambool Standard'', 20 June 2009, accessed 30 Sept 2012</ref>
Producer David Hannay who worked with Harbutt on ''Stone'' said the most ’negative experience‘ he had as a filmmaker in a career of over three decades was failing to get finance for Harbutt to make another film: <blockquote>Why have I failed? What is wrong with me? I have failed this person who is such an important part of my life, this person with enormous talent, this extraordinary human being, and I have failed him totally and absolutely. It really is the major low point in my life; if I really dwell on it, I get very angry.... I should have made a difference. Because I should have been able to make it happen. He is far more talented than 999 of the 1000 other people I know... You understand, of course, that he is his own producer. It is not a question of whether he would go to another producer. If he felt so inclined, he would. But, apart from anything else, Sandy needs somebody who is prepared to fold themselves into what he wants to do and be committed to that. That is something you would have to talk to him about.<ref>[http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=3627&Section=Interviews HANNAY, DAVID: A PRODUCER, HIS DEMONS, HIS HEROES AND HIS HATES (PART 2) ''Urban Cinefile'' 15 June 2000] accessed 1 April 2014</ref></blockquote>
== Filmography ==
===Film=== * ''The Runaway'' (1966) * ''Color Me Dead'' (1969) as Chester * ''Squeeze a Flower'' (1970) as Grape picker * ''Crisis'' (1972) * ''Stone'' (1974) as Undertaker<ref>{{cite web |URL=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072209/ |title=Stone (1974) |publisher=IMDb |accessdate=23 April 2019}} {{unreliable?|date=November 2019}}</ref>
===Television=== * ''Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'' (1968, episode 48: ''Rockslide'') * ''The Long Arm'' (1970) as Det. Kim Riverton
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/3809 Sandy Harbutt theatre credits] at AusStage *{{IMDb name|0361975}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbutt, Sandy}} Category:Australian film directors Category:1941 births Category:2020 deaths