Michael Pate

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Birthday:

26 February 1920, Drummoyne, New South Wales, Australia

Birth Name:

Edward John Pate

Height:

183 cm

The future movie bad man was born in Drummoyne, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, and got his career start as an interviewer on the government's radio station. Pate also worked on the Australian stage and in Down Under movies before relocating to th e U.S. in the early 1950s to appear in Universal's "Thunder on the Hill, " the film version of a Charlotte Hastings play ("Bonaventure") in which he had appeared. Pate acted in many American films and TV series, then returned to Australia in the late '60s and worked (again) in that country's film industry; he co-starred in his own Aussie TV series, "Matlock Police". Pate also began working behind the camera; one of his best-known writing-producing-directing credits is "Tim", the story of the relationship between an older woman (Piper Laurie) and a retarded young man (Mel Gibson). Show less «

[on his villain roles] I remember one critic, who used to write for a magazine in New York, who said I played the most likable villains that...Show more »

[on his villain roles] I remember one critic, who used to write for a magazine in New York, who said I played the most likable villains that he'd ever seen in the movies. Well, what may have accounted for it was the fact that I always played my villains as if I was the hero and all the others were the villains! Show less «

[on portraying villains] Everyone enjoys playing that kind of role; it's always fun to do a really good villain, a chance to show another si...Show more »

[on portraying villains] Everyone enjoys playing that kind of role; it's always fun to do a really good villain, a chance to show another side of your "actor's personality." And it's challenging to think up ways of being loved at the same time! Show less «

[reflecting on his career in a 1992 magazine interview] I didn't set any specific goals when I first got into acting. I thought, how nice wo...Show more »

[reflecting on his career in a 1992 magazine interview] I didn't set any specific goals when I first got into acting. I thought, how nice would it be if I could simply continue to act, whether in the theater, films or whatever. I had to make a career for myself, and I was very fortunate to have had enough talent to do so -- to become a professional actor. I wasn't dead set on being a "big star;" I saw too many unhappy people being "big stars." I just wanted to be well thought of in the same profession. I wanted to be successful in the sense that I was in demand. But otherwise I was very happy just being in the profession. Enjoy is the key word. If you don't, you shouldn't get into the business in the first place. So my advice to any aspiring actor is enjoy, and try to keep working! Show less «