Reg Lye

Reginald Thomas Lye (13 October 1912 – 23 March 1987), was an Australian actor who worked extensively in Australia and England.

Lye was one of the busiest Australian actors of the 1950s, appearing in the majority of locally shot features at the time, as well as on stage and radio. Lee Robinson called him "one of the best character actors in Australia."

After running his own revue company in the Riverina, Lye joined Sydney's New Theatre. His stage credits there included How Beautiful With Shoes (1946), God Bless the Guv'nor (1946), Enemies (1946), Of Mice and Men (1946), Sons of the South (1947), Woman Bites Dog, Deep Are the Roots (1947), A Physician in Spite of Himself (1947), Rocket Range (1947) and Sky without Birds (1952). He directed Stove, Sink and View in 1948. Lye directed Rocket Range for the Forbes Society, which won Best Play in a local competition. At the Orange Drama Festival, he won the award for Best Actor as Henry Gow in Noel Coward’s short play Fumed Oak. He then played Mr Markham in the radio play Mr Markham, Antique Dealer which he also co-adapted for the stage.

He starred alongside Chips Rafferty in several films, including western Eureka Stockade (1949) and King of the Coral Sea (1953). In 1956 he appeared in the British-American comedy film Smiley and Cecil Holmes’ Australian anthology film Three in One. and Walk into Paradise – the latter with Chips Rafferty once more. He then featured in Dust in the Sun (1958), and French-Australian films Stowaway (1958) and The Restless and the Damned (1959).

Lye relocated to England in the early 1960s, with a stage production of The One Day of the Year but after afterwards, found himself unemployed for three months due to an actors’ strike. He took jobs repairing houses, but after a year, he finally found a decent agent. In 1965 he secured a minor role in the Hollywood war film King Rat, Following this, he appeared in numerous television series and films, including police procedural series Z Cars, medical drama Dr. Finlay's Casebook, BBC series For Whom the Bell Tolls, comedy drama series Mrs Thursday and The Wednesday Play. During this time, he shared an Earl's Court flat with New Theatre alumni Jerry Wells.

Lye returned to Australia when the film industry revived in the 1970s. He starred in the 1975 Australian New Wave drama film Sunday Too Far Away, opposite Jack Thompson, for which he won an Australian Film Institute award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. In 1981, he was in political thriller The Killing of Angel Street, based on the true story of the 1975 disappearance of Juanita Nielsen during her involvement in the protest of a King's Cross development project. He then appeared in 1982 road movie Freedom alongside Max Cullen, Chris Haywood, Charles Tingwell, with the ill-fated Jon Blake in the lead role. The following year, he featured in family film Molly, alongside a young Claudia Karvan.

Lye's first wife was Phyllis Alma (Bessey) Lye, who he married in Canterbury, New South Wales on 11 February 1935. They were divorced on 1 October 1947.In 1948, Lye married his second wife, Ruth Margaret Clyne in Glebe, Sydney. By 1951 they were living at Jemalong Weir via Forbes, in Sydney's far west. He had a son and two daughters.

Lye died on 23 March 1987, age 74 in Hawkesbury District Hospital, Windsor, New South Wales.

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