Catacombs Credits GuideNick Tate
Catacombs Credits Guide
Comments from the London 2024 convention, September 2024.
I had lived in England for about 5 years from 1965 until end of 69 when I went home with a big musical that was called Canterbury Tales, the most wonderful experience of my life. I did 418 performances of singing and dancing in one of the most fun musicals you could ever imagine. I had worked a lot in England whilst I was there from 65 to 69, but I was a young Australian actor trying to get work and it was good and it was bad. I did a lot of working in swimming pools, at the Oasis swimming pool, walking around in my little red shorts and my whistle and all the office girls were coming in at lunchtime.
I went back to Australia with the musical and I thought well and then it was a huge time for me. I was off at a television series which I did. My father came back from England and worked with me. My father was a man called John Tate and he was the voice of all the extra characters in Thunderbirds, not the the sons or the father but all the guys are going "hey what you doing over there", "get that guy down here", "please don't kill me", "oh here comes a spaceship", you know all those voices. My father was very good with voices and I kind of picked it up. He worked a lot with Sylvia Anderson who played Lady Penelope.
I was doing a play in Australia called Don's Party, after all the various things I did after Canterbury Tales. I had done a pilot for a television series called The Chaser [1973], which was a very exciting television show. It was about a a detective who kept on missing out on everything. Every time he raced out to get in his car yet either a flat tire or a ticket or every time he tried to get the girl, she would reject him or every time he had to fight somebody he would slip and fall. He was sort of like almost like Columbo except he wasn't wise and old and ugly, he very pretty and and just a bit of a comedic kind of guy, who in the end did get the bad guys. It was a great premise and it's still never been done, but a director from America who'd been in the Rockford Files, conceived this thing, brought it to Australia, wanted to do it for himself. [Christopher Cary, a British actor/director who had worked in the US in the late 1960s] They didn't know him well enough, so they said you can direct it, but choose an Australian actor. He chose me and it was a great idea, but they didn't go with it, because somebody else had a production company in Australia and they did a television series. I think it was called Ryan and it starred this very good-looking man, who's a friend of mine [Rod Mullinar; his secretary was played by Pamela Stephenson; Nick was a guest in one episode]. He was kind of like the James Bond of Australia, and so it was predictably about beautiful girls and the guy always winning all the fights, and doing all the things that James Bond did. Obviously they went with that, rather than this stumbling kind of guy that I was playing. [Ryan lasted just one season, beaten in ratings by another crime series, Division 4; Nick Tate was in several episodes of both series] I thought the channel 7 didn't like me and I was wasting my time in Australia. I really needed to go back to England and work.
I was in a play called Don's Party which was a smash hit. I played Don. Robert Morley's daughter [Annabel Morley] came to see the play, and she came around backstage. She was young and travelling, and she said I just love what you did in this thing. My daddy's about to arrive in Australia, I want to bring him to see the show. I started seeing her, we were going out, and having coffees and lunches together. She was very funny, and and lovely, she was very like Robert Morley. When he arrived, she introduced me to him, brought him to the show, and he was blown away. He asked to meet the cast afterwards and it was like royalty. He lined us all up on stage, all the audience had gone home, and he went along shaking hands, "this play is golden, you're wonderful, you're all wonderful, you must come to England to do this play". I thought this is great. I want to go back to England anyway.
He said "I'm leaving next week. Nicholas, you will come?".
I said "you're enjoying Australia?"
"Yeah but there's nowhere to go and gamble".
I said "there's casinos here".
He said "I understand they're illegal"
I said "yeah, illegal but I can get you in".
"Can you, dear boy?"
I said "yes".
I took him to the 33 Club which was an infamous gambling casino in Sydney. It's very clearly an address of Oxford Street, 33 Oxford Street. I'd often see premier of New South Wales Premier [Sir Robert] Askin there. He was always saying to people "we can't find these gambling casinos, they're all mobile, they go in trucks, they make their money and they run". I would see him at the 33 Club every Friday night. I take Robert Morley down there and it was one of those things where you go up the back stairs, you knock on this big iron door. "Nick Tate", and I said "I got Robert Morley with me"
"Who?"
"He's a famous actor"
"He's with you, that's okay".
I bring Robert Morley and roulette wheels, backgammon tables, poker tables, Robert was in seventh heaven. The owners of the 33 Club who wound up in prison a year later, they loved Robert Morley and Robert Morley loved me because I would take him to this gambling casino.
He came back to England and he set up Don's Party that was going to be made here. The director, Michael Blackmore, had contracts to do all sorts of places for 12 months. When I arrived Robert said "oh dear boy I'm sorry, we will do this, but it's going to be another 12 months, just amuse yourself". I've been out of work in England, I knew what that was like, I had to go back to the Oasis swimming pool and in the red shorts and swing the whistle again. I wasn't going to do that, what was I going to do.
Then I bumped into John McCallum, who was an Australian producer who produced Skippy and then Boney after that. I'd been in Boney [1971-1972, starring James Laurenson], and he'd asked me to play the second lead of Boney, after I did an episode with him. It was kind of like Watson scratching his head saying to Sherlock "how'd you do that you know". I thought, no, I don't want to be playing that kind of a silly sidekick, so I refused him and I did Don's party instead. There was John McCallum standing outside the the steps of the Australian Bank, down near Fleet Street, the Bank of New South Wales, and he said "Nick Tate, you just arrived in England, I thought you were doing that Don's Party thing".
I said, "I was and now they're bringing it here, and I've come to do it, and now they've cancelled it".
"Oh so what are you doing?"
I said "well nothing".
He said "I'm having lunch with Bruce Gyngell today. You know Bruce?"
I knew Bruce had produced the Chaser that was cancelled. I said "yeah, but I don't think he likes me"
He said "oh dear, well I'll mention your name".
3 o'clock in the afternoon my phone rings and a lady says "is that Mr Tate there please?"
I said yes.
"I've got Mr Gyngell on the line for you". Bruce Gyngell to me was like Jesus Christ. He ran Channel 7 Network all throughout Australia. I didn't know, but he'd been brought to England to be Lew Grade's right-hand man. Sir Lew Grade was producing Space: 1999 amongst other things.
Bruce comes on the line "Nick Tate?"
I say "Yes Mr Gyngell"
He said "it's not Mr Gyngell, mate, it's bloody Bruce. Good day, Nick, you know I loved you in the Chaser, mate".
I said "you did, it didn't go ahead".
"Yeah cuz they wouldn't give me the money. They did that stupid Ryan thing about James Bond. They didn't know how good it was going to be. But you were wonderful, mate. Anyway, listen, I'm doing all these shows, and I want you in them." I can't believe this is happening. He said "do you know the Andersons?"
I said "well, my dad was in Thunderbirds".
"Oh that's right, he was, wasn't he? All right, I want you to go down and meet them, because they're doing this science thing called Space 1999. You'd be good for a pilot or something. Then there's a soccer series up in Manchester, do you play soccer?"
I didn't, I was a rugby player but I'd kicked a soccer ball, who's going to know you know. I said "yeah, I'm a good soccer player"
He sent me up to Manchester, I met the people up there, what was that series called back in 1973, all about soccer players. It was a very popular series. They started writing for me, they started to write this Australian character into the show. Then there was an an audition for A Street Car Named Desire. It was going to be done in Nottingham, and if it was any good it'd be brought into London. Street Car Named Desire had made Marlon Brando famous because he played this tough guy who keeps on fighting with his wife. He's standing out in the street screaming at her. I auditioned for that and I got that too.
Then there was a show that was on at lunchtime called Crown Court [Season 2, episodes 148-149, Tables of the Heart, directed by Cyril Coke, shown 19-21 December 1973]. It was about court cases and they had no jury, but they had a judge, and they had a guilty people and witnesses. The audience would decide whether you were guilty or innocent. There was a story about uh a heart transplant surgeon that does a heart transplant on a man who they claimed didn't need it. He saved the man's life, but the guy started going downhill, and a week later he was dead. The wife of the man said that he didn't need the heart transplant, and the older doctor who was in charge wasn't there on the weekend that this man started failing. My character was on duty at the time, and the old man begged him, because a young person died, and I had a fresh heart, and and it matched and he could get the heart. So my character goes ahead, and gives him a heart transplant without the wife knowing, and without the senior doctor knowing, and it was a success. But he eventually died, so he's up on murder. I go to meet the producers and we talk about it, and they say "we'd like you for the role" and the director says to me "he's is guilty as hell".
I said "wait a minute, what are you talking about?"
He said "he is guilty as hell".
I said "but doesn't the audience decide that?"
He said "yeah Nick, but I mean, the script, he's clearly guilty"
I said "I don't want to play the role".
He said "what do you mean, what are you doing?"
I said "from my reading, he is innocent. You're the director right? The audience makes up their mind? If I play the role, he's innocent".
He said "well, if you don't mind them changing at the end of the the show, you've got no say over it".
I said "fine". So I did it.
I'm telling that story, because two weeks later I go down to meet the Andersons and Sylvia Anderson. I come in, and the casting director doesn't want me to meet them, because he said "you have to see me first".
I said "but I'm supposed to be seeing Sylvia, Bruce Gyngell said that I was going to see her".
He said "I'm sorry but the whole show's cast, so there's nothing for you, just wasting your time. I make all the decisions about the casting anyway".
He wouldn't let me go in. I'm walking out and I'm seeing all these incredible sets. They were already rehearsing the pilot, instead of two weeks it was going to be six weeks. I saw all the sets. I walked past the door and it says Sylvia Anderson, and the door is open and she's in there, on the phone. I stop and I look at her and he's going to me "come on, come away from there"
The woman goes "hello"
I said "Sylvia?"
she goes "yes".
I said "I'm Nick Tate, John Tate son"
"Johnny Tate, come in, come in".
He goes "no no no, Sylvia, sorry, come on".
She said "it's all right Michael, it's a friend of mine, go away". Michael goes away, he was furious, he hated me from the day he saw me. Sylvia was lovely, she loved my dad, we talked about so much stuff. She was very interested in what I done in Australia, and she said "what a shame, I mean, he's right you know, the whole show's cast. Well actually, one of the pilots dies in the explosion, we haven't cast that, it's not many lines, one or two lines, be nice to have you along".
I said "well, it looks really exciting to me".
She said "Oh come, I'll take you for a walk". She took me around, and introduced me to everybody, and I was blown away by the set. I'm thinking God I'd love to be in this, but I'm going to die in the first episode. And I might be you know the next Marlon Brando in the theatre here, or a famous soccer player.
I had these options going and so I asked my agent. He said "definitely don't do that American show, sci-fi never works in England".
I said "what about Doctor Who?"
"It was different thing".
I'm really torn but I just felt something about Space: 1999, and I thought maybe they'll like me and they won't want to kill me. So I said to my agent I wanted it. He said "I don't want to represent you, because you're making a big mistake."
I accepted Space: 1999 without an agent. I was only going to be in the first episode, so I didn't get a a year-long contract, all I have was the first episode. I was going to die. Lee Katzin the director was workshopping all kinds of things, experimenting with stuff, and he noticed me, and he said to me one day "Nick, you you want to do lunch today?" I think why is the director asking me, I'm like an extra, virtually, asking me I want to do lunch. I went with him for lunch, and he said "I've been noticing you" he said "you clearly understand the camera. You've worked much?".
I said "yeah, I've done two television series in Australia. I played co-lead in one and second-lead in the second."
He said "can I see some footage? Will you bring it in, and anything that's written about you".
I'd done a series in Australia called Dynasty which is basically about Rupert Murdoch and his boys [1969-1971, 3 seasons]. My father came back from England to play the lead in it, and I played one of the sons. It was a huge success in Australia before I came here. I had TV Week with my father and me and the other two guys. He said "you're on the front page of TV week" They had TV Week in America, and he was an American director working here. "Okay", he said "this is getting better and better". Then he looked at my stuff and he said "I've got a big surprise here". He said "the Italian actor that's coming to play the chief astronaut is suddenly not coming, don't ask me why".
I came in the next morning there were all these actors lined up outside the casting director's office, and they all looked dark Italian looking. He comes out and he calls me over and he said "Nick, how's your Italian accent?"
I say "Italian accent, of course I can do the Italian accent, don't no worry, no problem". The only Italians I knew were waiters.
I go in and and Sylvia says "Lee, he's he's playing an astronaut for us already. It's Italian. Nick, do you do Italian?"
I launched into on my Italian.
She goes "no, that's not going to work, it's not going to work". I didn't even get to do the lines, and he's she's saying "no, thank you very much". Gerry Anderson says nothing. Michael Barnes is like "what's he doing in here?"
I'm walking to the door, he puts his arm around me, and says "what accents do you do?"
I said "what do you mean?"
He said "you look German, can you do a German accent?"
I said "Jawohl"
"This is an international Moonbase, it doesn't have to be Italian."
I said "well, he does because we got Italian money in the show, we need him to be Italian."
He said "well, let him try a German".
I do my German accent for this thing and they say "get out of here, Nick." I walking into the door, and he said "wait a minute, let him play an Australian".
Sylvia says "there's no bloody Australians on the moon".
I said "there no bloody English on the moon either".
He said "there, see, that guy, that's him!"
She said "no, Nick, go home".
I said "I haven't lost my role?"
No, so I go home
I don't know what the hell's going on. I've got to come back the next week and start playing the role instead.
My phone rings, my agent rings me and he says "what did you do?"
I said "what do you mean?"
He said "Michael Barnes just rang me, he's furious. They've offered you the lead of the chief Eagle pilot".
I said "And Michael Barnes was furious?"
He said "yeah".
I said "what do you think?"
He said "well, I told you that you shouldn't do it, but how did this happen?"
I said "long story, I'll tell you later". I accepted the role and the rest is history.
Sometimes you just got to go with your gut feeling, because I got on so well with Martin. Barbara was lovely too, and and Prentis and Zenia and Anton and Clifton. I was like a kid in a candy store. I adored playing the role. Martin and I got on better than a house on fire, the two of us would sit in corners telling silly stories to each other all the time. His birthday was on the 19th of June and my birthday is on the 18th of June, so we were almost astrological twins, except that he was about 12 years older than I was, and a big star. But he treated me like I was an equal, and it was wonderful.
I had quite a lot to do on Moonbase Alpha itself as well, but I did get to have all those alone times with Martin up in the Eagle One. I I've had a wonderful career out there in the world. I'm sorry that Space: 1999 didn't kick on after, because we always thought that it would.
There is however the story that you know, and I thought somebody might ask me this, but I'll launch straight into it. How the second series happened. In between shows, Space 1999 was cancelled. We didn't know, when we were leaving, that it wasn't going to come back. The rumour was it's over, maybe it it will pick up in popularity, but there not much chance because the Star Trek people just say it isn't Star Trek. Well no, it was never meant to be, it was more science faction than science fiction.
Coincidentally I have done two Star Trek since then. I was in Deep Space 9 and I was in Next Generation playing different characters. One guy was an alcoholic who drank all the rocket fuel [Next Generation episode Final Mission, 1990]. It was great fun to do. The other one [Deep Space Nine episode Honor Among Thieves, 1998], it was a rip-off of Donnie Brasco where I played the Al Pacino role of the guy that gets hoodwinked by Colm Meaney, instead of Donnie Brasco. It was unashamedly written about Donny Brasco, and it was a great episode to do. Now with that one, I didn't actually get that role either, because I'd been up in Canada, shooting a TV series called F/X [1996, episode 6] in which I played his father, and they wanted me to stay doing that. I was offered the series after I did the first episode. It was one of the best roles I've ever had in my life, because I was playing a 65-year-old Australian would-be criminal, whose son is a kind of detective solving problems [Australian Cameron Daddo played a special effects technician who assists an NYPD detective in solving crimes]. His father is his 65-year-old nightmare, because I'm like a 14-year-old son that's always getting arrested by the cops, and wanting to do bad things things all the time.
I seem to get quite a few roles like that in life. I did a television series in Australia called East of Everything [2009], where my character was again an older man who was an absolute child, who was always messing things up for his two adult sons, who didn't like each other. My character made it even worse for them. I love playing rogues. I was in Cry in the Dark [1988] with Meryl Streep. She's the lady that said "a dingo ate my baby". It was a wonderful film, and Meryl was wonderful in it.
Fred Schepisi I'd worked for in the Devil's Playground [released 1976] which is a film I did between Space: 1999s. I went back to Australia to shoot the Devil's Playground, and I played a Catholic priest who was a strong drinker, and used to get into trouble, going to the football matches, and having the the girls chat him up afterwards. It was kind of like a fun, sad, deeply moving movie and won the AFI award, and I got best actor, Fred got best director and scripts and so forth. It also won the director's fortnight at the Cannes film festival, so I thought big things would come from it. They strangely didn't.
I was chasing backwards and forwards between Australia and England all the time, and and when I finished the Devil's Playground between shows, Gerry Anderson asked me to come straight back to England and shoot a pilot for a new television series he's going to make. Space: 1999 was over, but he brought me back to be to star in a new series called Into Infinity. The episode was called The Day After Tomorrow. It was loosely based around a principle of the Doppler Theory [Relativity Theory]. A son [father] and daughter, and mother and son all go up in the spaceship together. With Brian Blessed, who I loved working with. This was going to be a television series that the BBC wanted to to buy.
When I finished that, sadly my mother died in Australia, and she was very big in my life. She was a wonderful actress, and I said goodbye to her after the Devil's Playground, so she didn't ever see the film, she hadn't seen much of Space: 1999 either. I had committed the sin of getting into a television series and having a career in a country that was around the other side of the world. When I left, my mother said goodbye to me, and I said "don't say goodbye to me like that, I'll be back in a couple of weeks".
She said "this is goodbye darling" and it was kind of chilling
I said "come on Mom, don't do that, I'm getting in the taxi. You want to come to the airport?"
"no", she said, "I'll wave goodbye".
She died 10 days later.
I had just finished into Infinity for Gerry Anderson. We shot it in 10 days. When I finished, I went down to the Isle of Wight where my dad lived. They all went to bed early that night. He had a big old mansion down in Isle of Wight, married to a lady, the family house. The phone kept ringing, I thought 2 o'clock in the morning, why aren't they answering the phone? I went down and answered the phone and it was Australia calling me that my mother had just died. It's never good when you lose a parent, you can imagine what that meant to me. I was on the next plane back to Australia.
I went back trying to sort out all the the things, and there's so much to tell about that. I'm going to put this all in memoirs one time. She asked me why I hadn't got married, when I stopped spreading my seed around everywhere and give her some grandchildren. I was having this pragmatic argument with my mother's ghost in the house. I said I can't find the right girl, they're all actresses, and everybody's bullshitting me, and and I'm bullshitting them. I want to find a solid, quiet, beautiful, country wife. I go back to England to a girl that I'd met, who was a solid, quiet. I thought this isn't the one, she's not the person. Then it just happened, she was the person, and I married her, and we've been married for 47 years. It's got nothing to do with me. I mean any woman that puts up with me, she's the one. I met her on the 28th of November 1975 at 8:30 at the night, and people say how do you remember that? I said if you get hit by a truck, you remember. Somebody asked me to go to a party, said it's going to be very pretty girls. I said I'm done with pretty girls, I want somebody solid and quiet, so I didn't want to go. He came around to my house at 8:00 and said what are you doing? I'd been I'd had a party the night before, I was unshaven and dirty and everything. He threw me in the shower, cleaned me up. He said "I promised I was going to bring you along". His cousin owned the house, and she had all these girls living in the house with her. I go and they're all sitting around playing backgammon, and everybody's being very polite. I play backgammon, I like to gamble, but this was all too polite. I leave, walk down the stairs, go to open the door, the door opens, and there's this girl in a riding hat and a whip. She's just been riding around Rotten Row [in Hyde Park]. I said "You live here?"
She said "yes, I've got to go up and have a shower"
I went "okay, goodbye".
She said "you leaving"
I said "no, I'm getting something out of the car".
That was her. She beat me at backgammon and I love that. I love challenges, so my challenge in life to to be able to beat her in backgammon. She's never beaten me since, but she beats me in all sorts of other things.
I've totally digressed, what was the question? Series two! I had done, as I told you, Into Infinity, Day After Tomorrow, and I thought that's it. Nothing's going to happen, I'm going to go back to Australia in fact I had an offer to go back to Australia. I did go back to Australia, it was about three times now, in that same year of 1975. Zenia Merton rings me and she says "Nick, you know they're doing Space: 1999 again?"
I said "no, they're not, sweetheart. I just was with Gerry and he never mentioned it".
She said "well, they're doing it, and none of us are in it. They've killed Barry Morse. I don't know where we're all going, but apparently when the only two people that are in it are Martin and Barbara".
I thought this is insane. I was the only character at that point in time that had been to any science fiction conventions. Martin didn't get invited, Barbara didn't get invited, I got invited. I went. Maybe a couple of you were at some of those early conventions that I went to. I'd never been to a science fiction convention in my life but I knew that my character was popular. [Tate was invited to the August Party convention in the US, 1 August 1976, and did a short US publicity tour for ITC]
I knew that ITC said that I got 5,000 fan mail a week. That wasn't particularly true or accurate. If it was, I never saw them. All the fan mail, Martin and Barbara said they had to get it all. I don't think he was very pleased about... all the fan mail. I didn't get into the second series and I couldn't understand why. Can I see Gerry? I rang, I had my agent ring, he couldn't see me. The day before they started shooting the series, in fact it was the Friday and they were going to start on the Monday. I think it was like the 1st of November 1975 [23rd January 1976]. I get a call from agent saying Gerry Anderson wants to see you at Pinewood Studios. I said "what for?"
He said "I don't know, you better go". She was a girl, Marina, she said "you better go Nick".
I said "but he never mentioned anything".
She said "maybe he's going to offer you a guest shot, or something. Or maybe he wants to see you die, I don't know. But I think you should go."
So I went down to see Gerry. Gerry was always very uncomfortable around actors. It was always Sylvia that did all the talking. Gerry even said when I I first met him. She said he doesn't like actors, and he didn't deny it. I see all the all the new sets, new actors. I didn't any didn't recognize anybody. I come in rather surreptitiously, and I go down the corridor to his office, enter into his office. He jumped up, and he closed the door on me, and he said "sit down Nick, I need to tell you what's been going on".
I said "why?"
He said "Nick, you've won."
I said "I've won what?"
"I want you back in the show".
I said "well, why did you not want me in the show?"
He said "i never not wanted you in the show" he said "but the new man that's come in, and is now taken over from Sylvia, he had very strong ideas about what he wants, and what he's doing, and so that's why you're not in the show".
"But you've got Martin and Barbara back in the show? Barry Moss was fabulous. Zienia. Prentis,..." I said "how many episodes have you got?"
He said "we've written 7 scripts and we have 11 in the pipeline"
I said "is Alan Carter in any of them?"
He said "well no".
I said "so what you going to a cross out 'astronaut' and write in 'Alan' are you? You know it doesn't work like that. The writers wrote especially for me because of my character."
He said "Nick, mate." He called me mate because he knows what I'm like. I liked Gerry, he was hard to get to know, and he didn't like working and talking to actors. He's very much a technical man, but clearly if he had me in Day After Tomorrow, and it was going to go ahead... incidentally that was never spoken about again. He said "I want you to meet Fred"
I said "okay yeah I think we should meet Fred".
Fred comes in, and just instantly, the minute the two of us looked at each other, we were not good. He said to me "It was difficult in the beginning because all the actors were wooden. I wanted to warm the show up" he said "I want to give you some jokes and some humanity, because it didn't exist in the first series. I'm going to change all of that." I want to say you're being a little insulting, but I just go shut up and listen to this guy. He said "come to my house tomorrow, and you drink tea? I've even bought English breakfast, and I'm going to make you English breakfast. We'll sit and we'll talk about what we can do. I'm sure at the end of the day you'll say yes.".
I was very confused I left, and Gerry didn't say anything. I went home. I went out to see Fred and his wife the following day. The first thing he said to me is "you know, I got to tell you the reason I've asked you to come here, is because when I told my kids that you weren't in the show. They said Dad he's so popular, you gotta have Alan Carter in the show."
You want to have me back, because your kids want me back?
He said "I'm going to give you a big promotion, make you a lieutenant."
I said "have you ever seen this show, Fred?"
"What are you talking about, I've seen all the episodes."
I said "You never noticed anybody calling me Captain before? I was Captain, lieutenant would be a demotion."
I thought this guy is a total prick. I never changed my opinion, in fact it got worse and worse, to the point where he said "I'm going to write for you" he said "we're going to offer you the series". They offered me crap. The money was no good, nothing was good. He said "we want you to sign for the whole series".
I said "I'm not going to sign. You say you're going to write for me. You write for me, I'll stay, you don't write for me, I'm gone.".
That's how it started. I did I think five episodes, and then the fifth script came out. Things were going okay. I mean it was new spunky guy, Tony Anholt, beautiful actor, wasn't his fault that he was been brought in to take over from where Fred Friberger had thought there was a big hole. There wasn't, but he thought there was. I never took that out on Tony, he was a really good actor and a very nice person. They didn't give us much to do together, because there wasn't any conflict there. They made up some silly stories about him making beer, and me not liking his beer, but that didn't matter much.
I came back and episode 5 comes out, and I open the script, and starting to read interesting story, nothing about Alan. On page 49, Alan Carter is in the moon buggy across the moon, and Martin looks out the window and says 'Alan, is everything...' I forget the line that he had. I have to say "all on automatic, commander" and that's it. [This is episode 6, The Taybor. The scene is page 33, and Alan's line (to Tony, not Koenig) is 'What's the panic, Alpha?' There is an earlier line when Alan declines Tony's beer. The lines were assigned to Fraser. The previous episode, Journey To Where, had an unusually strong role for Alan. Tate returned for The Mark of Archanon]. I'm a tiny little image, there's no close-up. I'm in a moon buggy, and this is for him writing meaningfully for Alan Carter? I'm sorry to make this all about Nick Tate and Alan Carter, but I'm talking about about a man who was a total prick and destroyed our series.
I took the script in, and I said is this how you write meaningfully for me, Fred? Stick it up your ass." We're in England, he's an American, I said "you American, you speak with forked tongue" I said it much more vehemently than that. I go out in the car.
He said "you can't walk out on me".
I said "watch me".
"You'll never work in Hollywood again!"
I said "it isn't Hollywood, it's England".
Martin comes "Nicky, what are you doing? Don't do this, he can destroy you".
I said "well, he's doing a pretty good job with the scripts, you know, so it's all yours, Martin". There were things that went on, which I haven't told you about.
Dragon's Domain was written for Carter. Gianni who came and played the role is a lovely actor. It's not his fault they offered him the best role that was written for a guest actor in the show. Martin realized when he read Dragons, what a great role it was. I was at Johnny Byrne's house. He showed me the script. Chris Penfold wrote the original. It was my big break. I've gone back to the first series. I was thrilled that I was going to get to play this. Johnny Byrne and Chris were trying to work out how they could make Alan very important for them. Dragons Domain was a great story, in fact the movie Alien that came afterward, everybody says they pinched that idea. It's not necessarily a universal idea, but it was a great idea, and it was a great role for me. When that script came out, this is the 7th episode that we were shooting in the first series [the 23rd episode of 24], I opened that script. I read it with great excitement, because Johnny had shown me the draft and Alan gets knocked on the head in the first page, goes into the infirmary and he can't fly the eagle. They bring in an Italian star pilot, Gianni, to play the role. He discovers the dragon, and gets killed by the dragon, and Martin comes in and vanquishes the dragon. [The original storyline was called The Web, and featured "Calder", as did the script, later changed to "Cellini" when Garko was cast. It is unlikely that a script featuring Carter was ever written, as episodes were required to feature a guest star. It is possible in the earliest ideas Penfold considered using Carter. Perhaps the expectation was that an Italian actor wouldn't turn up, as happened in The Last Sunset when Prentis took over the guest role]
I went to Sylvia and I said "Sylvia, what is this? I've read this script, where's Alan?"
She says "close the door". I closed the door. She went and got a bottle of Johnny Walker scotch whisky, she poured me half a glass of Scotch whisky. She said "drink this, darling". It's 8 o'clock in the morning. She said "you think everybody loves you on this show, don't you?"
I said "yeah"
She said "They don't".
I said "who doesn't?"
She said "do I have to spell it out to you?"
I said "yeah, you do"
She said "well, Nick, I'm not going to. If I tell you, and you breathe a word of this, you're off the show instantly. But I do not run this show."
I said "you're the producer? Oh, Gerry doesn't like ..."
She said "no, Nick, don't be so naive, it's not Gerry."
I said "well, who is it?"
She said "are you smart human being, Nick Tate? Who's your friend in this show?"
I said "everybody"
"No, everybody is not your friend, Nick, be smarter than that." She didn't name who it was. I know who it was. It was very hard for me to play in the rest of the series, knowing that that was taken away from me. I never said anything about it, but I stayed being his best friend. He was very good to me throughout the whole show. The one thing Sylvia said to me is "if a big dog has a bone, he will play with all the other dogs in the garden, because he loves them, but if they touch his bone, he will bite the head off." she said "I don't want to see him bite your head off, Nick."
So I behaved myself, and I was his best friend, and I did very well. I didn't get Dragon's Domain, somebody else did, and they killed him. Hard enough to swallow at the time, but I'm still here. I hope I haven't dragged you all down. In life sometimes things don't seem to work out, and then sometimes you know you really sweat and cry over stuff that's really bad, and then you find that something else even better happens to you. You realize had you done the first thing, that you couldn't have done the second thing. It's all worked out all right for me in life. I'm not the star actor that I might have been, there's all sorts of other reasons why, perhaps I wasn't that good, I don't know. There 're just doors that have opened and closed, that wonderful film Sliding Doors, and I just love that film and I feel that's very much like what kind of happened to me. It's happened several times in my life.
I went off to shoot an episode of Lost. It was actually the second episode they ever made. They did a pilot for Lost and I'd gone back to Australia because of 9/11. My son stayed in New York because he was in NYU. We did bring him home for a while, after the the horrors that went. He stayed in Australia for a year, but my daughter was coming up to a 12th grade, and she was in Australia doing her 12th grade. I love my kids, they've been my life. I adore them. She said to me, "Daddy you keep going back to America to shoot things, even though you're living with us in Sydney. Please stop going there, and I'm in my 12th grade this year, please don't go away from me, be here." I promised my daughter that I would not leave her side, I would be there for her every day. We lived in Paddington in Sydney. I don't know if anybody's been there, but it is God's gift. I love Australia and so it wasn't a hardship being there. I wasn't earning the money that I get in America or in England, when I was doing things like Space: 1999, but I was having a very good life. My son was graduating from NYU, so both Hazel and my daughter unbeknownst to me booked themselves a flight to New York, to go back and see Tom's final performance. I don't know why they didn't invite me to go. Jesse said "I'm going to to New York to see Tommy's last show".
I said "Without me?"
She said "did Mommy ask you?"
I said no.
She said "I knew that you'd made a pact, and you wouldn't go back, so I wasn't trying to embarrass you."
I said "but you're taking Jesse back to new york?"
She said "yes, well do you want to come?"
I said "of course I want to come"
The three of us flew to New York to go and watch my son. He was in classical drama, Tisch [NYU Tisch School of the Arts]. My son was a very good actor, and he played wonderful roles at Tisch. He was in Henry 4, Henry 5 ... They'd done it throughout the year, three months on this one, three months on that one, three months on that one, and then their final month they rehearsed all three of them together. They did their final performance. That final performance was done on a Saturday. It started at 9:00 in the morning and it went till 12. It was an hour long break, and then the second play started at 1 and went till 4. There was an hour on break, and then the the third play started at 5:00 and it went till 8:00 at night. All three performances, it was sensational and wonderful.
Whilst I'm there my phone rings. Actually the Friday, the night before that we did the performance, my phone rings. From my agent in LA, said "I've be trying to find you" he said "April Webster wants to see you for this new show. They're taking to Hawaii. Called Lost or something like that. There's this great role of an Australian farmer, and April wants you, because she likes you".
I said "I can't do it because I promised my daughter that I will stay in Australia with her. Anyway I don't want to be in Hawaii, because I got skin cancer. I'm not dying of it, although that's all the big skin graft, I got them my back, on my legs and my face. Plastic surgery, but I'm alive. When I play golf I look like a Bedouin. Two gloves, full arms, the lot because I've got the white freckly skin.
I'm watching my son's performance. They said 10:00 tomorrow morning you have to be here to audition for JJ Abrams. I said there no point, I don't want to be in Hawaii, I can't do it. He said "look Nick, JJ Abrams, this is really important, you need to come back and audition for it".
I got on the red eye and I went back to LA and I got here about 9:00 in the morning. I went in for the audition, and I get to the audition room. There's about nine Australian farmers with the big white hat and corks hanging off. Some of them were Australian, some of them weren't. I thought what the hell am I doing here with all these people? They've all got the role, it's not going to happen to me. Finally the door opens and April comes out. She says "okay, Gerry, come on in. Everybody this is Gerry. I'm sitting here and April asked me to come back, she's totally ignored me. This guy's in there for 20 minutes. "Okay, Gerry, wonderful, buddy, we'll see you. Frank, you come on in now"
Frank goes in, another 10 minutes of laughter and applause. He leaves and then she comes out again.
She said "oh Nick, you're here" and I said "yeah, I came back for you". She said "all right, come in, come in". As I'm walking in the door, her phone goes. "Hello, sorry, everybody this is Nick Tate" and she walks away. They're all just sitting there.
There wasn't any "Frank how are you buddy", nothing.
The guy said "have you looked at the role"
I said "yeah".
I recognized JJ Abrams sitting there. There's about 10 people in the room. There's about four pretty girls who are all about 18 years of age, and all these old executives. I didn't know what the pretty girls were for. I later learned that when the actor has done his audition, before the executives say whether they like him or not, they say to the girls what do you think? They go "oh he was lovely" "oh I didn't like him" or whatever. That's what they're there for. This guy with a cloth cap, and a little pig tail says "okay, you ready?" I didn't know who the hell he was. He looked like the office boy. I did it and there total silence. He says "okay, get out of here." I said "I could do it again?" He said "what for?" I said "I could do it faster or slower, or you want me more Australian or less Australian?" He said say "no, just get out of here". I walk out the door, and I'm thinking I've flown back on a red eye for this? I was in the room for 95 seconds, these other guys had 20 minutes, they're all laughing and pat him on the back. I was livid. I walk out the door. There's a big palm tree outside this door, and I smashed my fist in this, nearly broke my hand. I so angry. I'm in Burbank. I knew Priscilla's [4150 W Riverside Drive], I'd been there before many years ago. There was a mate of mine that lived around the corner.
I rang him up. I said "I'm in Priscilla's, will you come down and have a cup of coffee with me?" He said "yes". He came down, and for about 3 hours we sat there talking about his sons, my sons, my life, his life. I said "I'm flying on a plane back to Australia tomorrow". He said "well, look, it was lovely to see you, I was wish you was staying longer". My phone goes, I answer the phone and my agent said "what did you do?" He said "you're flying to Hawaii tomorrow".
I said "no, I'm flying to Australia tomorrow".
He said "no, you're not. They loved you".
They told me to get out of the room?
He said "you walked in the door, you were the guy, you nailed it."
They said "get out of here". You know why? Because maybe I'd have stayed, and wanted more money?
The first day, I had to do all these scenes with this little girl, who I'd never seen in my life before. Her name is Evangeline Lilly [then aged 25]. She was sitting in the makeup chair, and I sit down in the makeup chair next to her. She's in the mirror, she looks at me, she said "are you playing Ray". I said yeah. She said "I'm Kate"
I said "we got the scenes together".
She said "yes, do you want to run the lines?"
I said "Okay".
She said to the makeup lady "just give us a minute, will you?"
She's sitting in the chair here, I'm sitting here. This girl comes to my farm, I'm pretty angry that she's slept in my sheet pen, and I'm going to give her a bad time, then I offer a job. I don't know she's running away from the police. She works on my farm, and she does very well, but she starts taking little bits of money that I got in an old tin can. She's going to run away that night. She'd been with me for about 3 months. I find her and I say that I'm sorry that she's walking out like this, and she breaks down and cries. She did all that in the chair, and she cried in the chair. Real tears. We go outside. I've never seen this girl in my life before, but she was wonderful and she says to me "was that good?"
I said "no it wasn't good".
She said "oh".
I said "you're wonderful".
I don't know why she isn't a big star. I was there for 10 days, she used to come to me every day and give me a big cuddle.
She said "I got married to this Canadian dentist [actually a professional ice hockey player], took me away to his little town and I sat there thinking what have I done with my life? Nothing [she was a model and had several non-speaking TV roles]. I want to do something with my life. I saw an ad for a commercial and I thought maybe I should try doing a commercial". She rang the ad, and they said come on down, and she read for this very sleazy kind of agency. She had to read one of these things, 'what are you doing come up and see me tonight'. She got it, he rings her back and says "you've got the role". She says "I can't do that. I'm sorry my husband would kill me". Two days later, he rang her again. He said "look, I've just read this thing that's happening down in LA. I need you to come in an audition for it. Just do it and if they offer it to you, you can say no. It's a good experience". She read for Lost in his office, he sent it down there, they rang immediately and said send her down. That's how she got the role.