Jack Thompson

Born: August 31 1940
Where: Sydney, Australia

The veteran Australian actor first attracted attention as the defence lawyer in in Bruce Beresford's war drama Breaker Morant.

The 1980 movie, which starred Edward Woodward as a lieutenant court-martialed during WWII, landed Thompson a best supporting actor award at Cannes.

He has gone on to feature in movies ranging from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence to Stars Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones.

A graduate of the University of Queensland, Thompson landed small parts in Australian TV series including Skippy and Riptide.

He made his big screen debut in the 1970 crime drama The Lady From Peking and went on to land a lead role in the critically acclaimed A Sunday Too Far Away.

In 1975, he appeared in the British TV thriller Tully and appeared opposite Dennis Hopper in the Australian western Mad Dog Morgan.

Three years later he appeared in Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith before being cast in Breaker Morant.

Subsequent big screen appearances included Mike Newell's Bad Blood and the family drama The Man From Snowy River with Kirk Douglas.

In 1983, he played Group Captain Hicksley opposite David Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence before switching styles for Paul Verhoeven's action drama Flesh & Blood.

Thompson starred alongside Reese Witherspoon in the family adventure A Far Off Place and opposite Russell Crowe in the drama The Sum of Us in 1994.

Back on the action front, he appeared in John Woo's Broken Arrow with John Travolta and in 1997 appeared alonside Alicia Silverstone in the action drama Excess Baggage.

In 2001, he appeared alongside Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas in the drama Original Sin before playing Cliegg Lars in Star Wars: Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones.

Recent work includes Nils Mueller's drama The Assassionation of Richard Nixon opposite Sean Penn.