Gary Sweet's first starring role was playing Don Bradman in Bodyline
In 1984 Adelaide-raised actor Gary Sweet landed his first lead, as the batting great Donald Bradman in Bodyline, a miniseries about the bitter 1932–33 Test series between England and Australia, acting alongside Hugo Weaving. It launched a career that has made him one of Australian television's most familiar faces.
Sweet, born on 22 May 1957, trained as a teacher and caught the acting bug in drama classes at Sturt Teachers' College. His screen debut was a low-budget 1980 horror film, Nightmares, and he soon became known as Magpie Maddern in the series The Sullivans, winning a Logie for it. Films followed, including a lead in An Indecent Obsession in 1985 and a part in the 1987 war film The Lighthorsemen.
His biggest success came from 1990 to 1996 as Sergeant Mickey McClintock in Police Rescue. The role brought AFI awards for best lead actor in a television drama in 1991 and 1992 and Silver Logies in 1994. Later he spent years in the police drama Stingers until it ended in 2004, then played Lewis Crabb in House Husbands from 2012 to 2017. Hollywood came calling in 2010, when he played Lord Drinian in the Narnia adventure The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Not every venture worked. His 1994 cover version of a Billy Thorpe song stalled at number 52 on the Australian chart. He has also done stage work, including a Frankie Valli tribute musical, and reached the final seven of Dancing with the Stars.
Early in 2026, as a contestant on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, he disclosed a secret he said he had never told: he was raised from birth by his uncle and aunt, who could not have children, so his biological parents became his uncle and aunt and his sisters his cousins. He finished in the top three.
Source: Gary Sweet
