Hugh Keays-Byrne

Hugh Keays-Byrne

Hugh Keays-Byrne (May 18, 1947 – December 2, 2020) was a British-Australian actor and film director. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was best known for playing the main antagonist in two films from the Mad Max franchise: Toecutter in Mad Max (1979), and Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He also played Toad in the 1974 biker film Stone, and Grunchlk on the science fiction series Farscape. Keays-Byrne was born in Srinagar, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (part of the British Raj then, India now) to British parents; his family returned to Britain when India was partitioned. He began his career as a stage actor. Keays-Byrne made his first television appearance in 1967 on the British television programme Boy Meets Girl. He was part of Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which toured Australia in 1973. Keays-Byrne decided to remain in Australia after the tour ended. In 1974, he acted in the TV movie Essington, then made his first film appearance in the motorcycle picture Stone (1974). This was followed by supporting roles in films like The Man from Hong Kong (1975), Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The Trespassers (1976) and Snapshot (1979). After his first starring role in the 1978 TV movie Death Train, Keays-Byrne was cast as the violent gang leader Toecutter in Mad Max (1979). Director George Miller had Keays-Byrne and the other actors for the gang travel from Sydney to Melbourne in a group on motorcycles, as there was no money for airplane tickets. In an early international print of the film, Keays-Byrne was dubbed with a bad American accent, which Miller later regretted. Keays-Byrne then continued to act in post-apocalyptic and science fiction films like The Chain Reaction (1980), Strikebound (1984), Starship (1985) and The Blood of Heroes (1989). In 1992, he made his directorial debut and acted in the film Resistance. He also appeared in TV miniseries adaptations of Moby Dick (1998) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1999). Keays-Byrne played Grunchlk in the science fiction television series Farscape (1999–2003) and its conclusion Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004). George Miller also cast him as the Martian Manhunter in the planned 2009 movie Justice League: Mortal. Keays-Byrne returned to the Mad Max franchise in the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road as the main villain Immortan Joe. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning 6, and Keays-Byrne was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. Description above from the Wikipedia article Hugh Keays-Byrne, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

  • Title: Hugh Keays-Byrne
  • Popularity: 3.507
  • Known For: Acting
  • Birthday: 1947-05-18
  • Place of Birth: Kashmir, India
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As:
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Hugh Keays-Byrne Movies

  • 1975
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    The Man from Hong Kong

    The Man from Hong Kong

    6.7 1975 HD

    Australian authorities arrest a man believed to be connected to the Sydney criminal underworld and send for Inspector Fang Sing Leng from Hong Kong...

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  • 1979
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    Mad Max

    Mad Max

    6.685 1979 HD

    In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang...

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  • 1974
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    Stone

    Stone

    6.1 1974 HD

    After one of its members witnesses a political assassination, an outlaw motorbike gang becomes the target of a string of murders, prompting a cop to...

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  • 1980
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    The Chain Reaction

    The Chain Reaction

    5.6 1980 HD

    Contaminated by a nuclear-plant spill, an Australian worker hides with a woman and tries to warn the public.

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  • 1978
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    Blue Fin

    Blue Fin

    6 1978 HD

    Based on the children's novel by celebrated South Australian author 'Colin Thiele' , this is an emotional father and son story about tuna fishing of...

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  • 1984
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    Lorca and the Outlaws

    Lorca and the Outlaws

    3.6 1984 HD

    Jowitt, a mercenary without recluse institutes a totalitarian regime in a small mining city of an arid planet, Ordessa, helped in that by androids...

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  • 1979
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    Snapshot

    Snapshot

    5.6 1979 HD

    A young hairdresser enters into the modeling world while fearing retaliation from her puritanical mother and stalker ex-boyfriend.

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  • 1984
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    Strikebound

    Strikebound

    5.3 1984 HD

    Via the New York Times: "...reconstructs the true story of a coal miners' strike in the small town of Korumburra in the mid-30's... based on the...

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  • 1985
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    Burke & Wills

    Burke & Wills

    4.9 1985 HD

    A story based on true events about two explorers on a doomed journey trying to cross Australia on foot in the 19 century.

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  • 1970
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    Seven Friends: George Miller’s Justice League

    Seven Friends: George Miller’s Justice League

    10 1970 HD

    Documentary chronicling director George Miller's unmade 2008 superhero movie Justice League Mortal.

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  • 1987
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    Les Patterson Saves the World

    Les Patterson Saves the World

    4.8 1987 HD

    Fat middle aged 24/7 drunkard Les Patterson represents Australia at the UN where his fart literally incinerates an Arab ambassador. Patterson is...

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  • 1976
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    The Trespassers

    The Trespassers

    1 1976 HD

    In 1970, political journalist Richard lives with Penny but is having an affair with actress Dee. The two woman meet and become friends.

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  • 1975
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    Polly My Love

    Polly My Love

    1 1975 HD

    An Australian-set romance starring Jacki Weaver.

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  • 1986
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    For Love Alone

    For Love Alone

    3.1 1986 HD

    Teresa is a spirited young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of 1930s society, and her father in particular. She fancies her...

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  • 1978
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    The Death Train

    The Death Train

    5 1978 HD

    An insurance investigator comes to a small town to investigate the death of a man insured by his company. The local residents believe his death was...

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  • 1977
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    Barnaby and Me

    Barnaby and Me

    4.8 1977 HD

    Barnaby and Me is a 1978 Australian TV movie about a girl and her talking koala who are pursued by criminals.

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  • 2015
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    Mad Max: Fury Road

    Mad Max: Fury Road

    7.6 2015 HD

    An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed...

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  • 1988
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    Dadah Is Death

    Dadah Is Death

    7 1988 HD

    On 9th of November 1983 two Australians, Kevin Barlow and Geoff Chambers were arrested at Penang Airport in Malaysia carrying 179 grams of Heroin. A...

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  • 1987
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    Treasure Island

    Treasure Island

    7 1987 HD

    Young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of the buried treasure of the buccaneer Captain Flint, in this adaptation...

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  • 1976
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    Mad Dog Morgan

    Mad Dog Morgan

    6 1976 HD

    The true story of Irish outlaw Daniel Morgan, who is wanted, dead or alive, in Australia during the 1850s.

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  • 1989
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    The Blood of Heroes

    The Blood of Heroes

    5.8 1989 HD

    Set in a futuristic world where the only sport that has survived in a wasted society is the brutal game known as jugging. Sallow, the leader of a...

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  • 1999
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    Voyage au centre de la terre

    Voyage au centre de la terre

    1 1999 HD

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  • 1984
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    Where the Green Ants Dream

    Where the Green Ants Dream

    6.9 1984 HD

    The Australian Aborigines (in this film anyway) believe that this is the place where the green ants go to dream, and that if their dreams are...

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  • 1983
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    Going Down

    Going Down

    3.5 1983 HD

    Karli's over the Sydney scene and its small-pond bohemian excesses. That's why she's moving to New York City in the morning. But over the course of...

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  • 1988
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    Badlands 2005

    Badlands 2005

    5 1988 HD

    In 1995, a severe drought forced Americans to flee the West for the cities. Water became more precious than gold. Now in 2005, settlers are coming...

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  • 1986
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    Kangaroo

    Kangaroo

    6 1986 HD

    A mild-mannered English conscientious objector moves to what he feels will be the relative calm of Australia after World War I, but gets caught in...

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  • 2017
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    Going Mad: The Battle of Fury Road

    Going Mad: The Battle of Fury Road

    6.8 2017 HD

    For 20 years director George Miller fought to unleash the ultimate Mad Max movie - Mad Max: Fury Road. Witness George's journey from the dream of a...

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  • 2011
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    Sleeping Beauty

    Sleeping Beauty

    5.3 2011 HD

    A haunting erotic fairytale about Lucy, a young University student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of beauty and desire.

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  • 2015
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    The Madness of Max

    The Madness of Max

    7.2 2015 HD

    The Madness of Max is a feature-length documentary on the making of arguably the most influential movie of the past thirty years. With over forty...

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  • 1992
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    Resistance

    Resistance

    5 1992 HD

    Over the five days after a military coup, army troops arrive to enforce martial law and encounter a growing resistance movement.

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  • 1992
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    Resistance

    Resistance

    5 1992 HD

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  • 1999
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    Farscape

    Farscape

    7.856 1999 HD

    A freak accident during an experimental space mission catapults Astronaut John Crichton across a thousand galaxies to an alien battlefield.

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  • 2004
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    Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

    Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars

    7.641 2004 HD

    When a full-scale war is engaged by the evil Scarran Empire, the Peacekeeper Alliance has but one hope: reassemble human astronaut John Crichton.

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  • 1998
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    Moby Dick

    Moby Dick

    5.9 1998 HD

    The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.

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  • 1999
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    Journey to the Center of the Earth

    Journey to the Center of the Earth

    5.767 1999 HD

    Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had...

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