Education
Brisbane-born Leonard George Thiele (he later changed his surname professionally) attended Milton State Primary School in Brisbane.
Brisbane-born Leonard George Thiele (he later changed his surname professionally) attended Milton State Primary School in Brisbane.
He is best remembered for his role as David "Mac" Mackay in the long running Australian police drama Homicide. Radio roles included the dual roles of Superman/Clark Kent in the late 1940searly 1950s, along with the lead role in Tarzan, regular appearances in radio variety programs such as the Bonnington"s Bunkhouse Show, and voiceovers in countless commercials. He appeared in several feature films, including Smiley, Smiley Gets A Gun, and Bungala Boys.
In the early 1950s, with Raymond Hanson, Roland Robinson and others, he helped form the short-lived Australian Cultural Defence Movement, aimed at protecting Australian art from the perceived inroads being made by other cultures, particularly from the United States. The movement eventually faltered under the weight of anti-communist criticism.
He was a co-compere of the radio American Broadcasting Company Children"s Session, as "Chris" from 1951 to 1954 (also playing the title role in its Muddle-Headed Wombat serial), his involvement possibly cut short by management for political reasons. At this time he was still using the surname "Thiele" professionally.
Major television roles included a regular comedic role in the Mobil-Limb Show, host roles in variety programs Singalong and Folkmoot, and acting roles in locally produced drama series including Whiplash, The Hungry Ones, Adventure Unlimited, and Consider Your Verdict. He is best remembered, however, for his long-running role as Senior Detective (later Detective Sergeant) David "Mac" Mackay in Homicide from 1965-1973.
Homicide was Australia"s first-ever locally produced television police drama.
He also hosted a documentary about the series, The Homicide Story, in 1970. Other leading television roles included Captain Woolcott in Seven Little Australians (1973), and headmaster Charles Ogilvy in school-based soap opera Class of "74 (1974-1975). Teale narrated for Australian Broadcasting Corporation audio recordings, including the Banjo Paterson poem The Manitoba from Snowy River.
His reading of Dorothea Mackellar"s patriotic poem which includes the line "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains" became so popular in the 1970s that it was frequently used to parody him.
Married three times, Leonard Teale had four children, Amanda, Juli, Jennifer and Melinda. Leonard Teale died of a heart attack in 1994.