Australia After returning to Australia, Tingwell married his childhood sweetheart, Audrey May Wilson. They were to have two children, Christopher and Virginia. He joined
Doris Fitton's
Independent Theatre company and appeared on stage from the mid-1940s in such classics as
The Little Foxes by
Lillian Hellman and
Jean Giraudoux's
The Madwoman of Chaillot In 1946, Tingwell was given his first film role, in
Smithy, cast as an RAAF control tower officer – winning the role since he could supply his own RAAF uniform. He made his leading role debut in
Always Another Dawn.
Filmink wrote Tingwell "was relatively green at the time, but even at this stage was an ideal leading man – handsome, good voice and posture, all that stuff. If he’d gone to Britain straight after this film, we think he would’ve become a movie star." Tingwell had an excellent supporting role in
Bitter Springs (1950), made by
Ealing Studios with
Chips Rafferty; Tingwell played Rafferty's bigoted son. He had a similar role in
Kangaroo (1952), a Hollywood-financed film shot in Australia for
20th Century Fox. He then appeared in
I Found Joe Barton (1952), the first TV show filmed in Australia. Fox liked Tingwell's work in
Kangaroo and invited him to Los Angeles to play the role of Lt. Harry Carstairs in
The Desert Rats, in which he appeared opposite
Chips Rafferty,
James Mason and
Richard Burton. They offered him a long-term contract but Tingwell turned it down because he wanted to return to Australia. In 1954, he co-starred with
Gordon Chater in
Top of the Bill, the first of the famous satirical revues staged at Sydney's
Phillip Street Theatre.
UK career The Australian film and radio industries slumped with the advent of television and Tingwell decided to move to the UK. He used the opportunity of a role in Ealing's
The Shiralee (1957), which was filmed in Australia and London. Tingwell travelled to England to complete his scenes and decided to stay. The following year, he took on his first recurring television role, as Australian surgeon Alan Dawson in the live TV serial
Emergency Ward 10 and its film spin-off
Life in Emergency Ward 10 (1959). He had small roles in Ealing's
Dunkirk (1958), then
Bobbikins (1959),
Cone of Silence (1960), and
Tarzan the Magnificent (1960). Tingwell played the role of Inspector Craddock in all four films of the
Miss Marple series, starring
Margaret Rutherford, from 1961 to 1964:
Murder, She Said (1961),
Murder at the Gallop (1963),
Murder Most Foul (1964) and
Murder Ahoy! (1964). For
Hammer Films he appeared in
The Secret of Blood Island (1964) and
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966). He had the lead in a TV series
An Enemy of the State (1965). In the late 1960s, he performed various minor voice roles for the
Gerry Anderson "
Supermarionation" TV series
Thunderbirds and
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, besides appearing in the first series of
Catweazle. In 1969 until the end of the play's run, he appeared as
Robert Danvers in the long running farce ''
There's a Girl in My Soup'' at the Comedy Theatre, London. He was the recurring character of motel manager Kevin McArthur in
Crossroads in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (
Vincent Ball played McArthur in 1970–1973). He had a small role in
Nobody Runs Forever (1968) with
Rod Taylor.
Return to Australia Tingwell appeared in many other films during his time in Britain, spending a total of 16 years as a "London
Aussie". In 1973, he returned to Australia with his wife and children, and shortly after won the role of Inspector Reg Lawson in the long-running TV series
Homicide. This was followed by small roles in a number of major Australian films, such as
Breaker Morant (1980),
Puberty Blues (1981) and
All the Rivers Run (1983). He also played the recurring role of farmer Ted Campbell in the soap
A Country Practice in the late 1980s and early 1990s and as the Narrator from
The Flying Scotsman in Australia Revival in popularity Tingwell's career went through a quiet period during the late 1980s and early 1990s, until he took on the role of 'Gramps' in "Charlie the Wonderdog", a recurring segment on
The Late Show, in 1993. His role in
The Late Show was later to win him a major role as lawyer Lawrence Hammill in the film
The Castle (1997). He later stated that this role helped him to recover from the death of his wife the previous year. After the success of
The Castle, Tingwell's career underwent a revival during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This saw him take on small roles in the commercial films
The Craic (1999) and
The Dish (2000), and in the TV mini-series
Changi, as well as the lead role in the romantic drama film
Innocence (2000). He would also appear on sketch show
Totally Full Frontal, playing himself, as well as a recurring guest role in the soap opera
Neighbours from 2000 to 2003, playing
Henry O'Rourke. He had previously appeared in the soap in 1993 as
Bert Willis. He appeared as John Conroy in the musical theatre production
The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular, which toured Australian capital cities twice during 2002. In 2004, Tingwell published a memoir,
Bud: A Life. In 2006, he launched his own website, which attracted 500 registered users in just over a week. On 5 October that year, he created his first blog post. He continued to act regularly until his death, in a number of films and TV programmes including eight episodes of
Bed of Roses that aired in 2010. Among his last appearances, he hosted both
Celebrity Circus and
20 to 1 and appeared on a celebrity special of
Temptation with his daughter, Virginia. ==Accolades==