17/10/2025
STILL TREADING THE BOARDS IN HIS 100th YEAR, MEET WW2 VETERAN, ACTOR, DIRECTOR, SET BUILDER AND KEEN GARDENER BRUCE CROWL
Having recently performed the role of the Butler, in the one act stage play Dinner For One, on the eve of his 100th birthday, Foster identity Bruce Crowl might just be Australiaās oldest actor!
Born on September 1st, 1925 in Bendigo, Bruce attended Scotch College in Melbourne and developed and interest in the theatre as a teenager, performing in plays put on by the local church.
Having endured the Great Depression, his father, a clerk with the Victorian Railways, insisted that Bruce pursue a more lucrative career as engineer, enrolling him in Swinburneās School of engineering.
But Bruce hated engineering, and in failing most of his subjects, quit to join the Navy at 17 years old, where he was trained and deemed fit for active service by his 18th birthday in 1943.
Bruce served as a visual signalman on the HMAS Australia, which was stationed in the Pacific, during the time of General Douglas Macarthurās famous āreturn to the Philippinesā campaign.
As the allies invaded the Leyte Gulf to recapture the Philippines on October 21th 1944, the HMAS Australia was attacked by what is believed to be the first ever series of Japanese kamikaze planes.
The fire bomb explosion which took out the bridge on the HMAS Australia, ultimately claimed the lives of 30 officers and servicemen, wounding a further 64 onboard.
After the war, Bruce studied Industrial design at Melbourne Tech, where he performed in plays produced by the architectural school.
He went on to do speech training, and a course in radio acting and radio announcing through Hector Crawfordās organization.
In the late 40s he landed a radio announcers job at 3HA Hamilton, while pursuing his love of acting with companies such as the National Theatre in Melbourne.
He then found employment with 6KY, a commercial radio station in Perth, before getting a job as a radio announcer with the ABC in Perth 1958.
He stayed with the ABC for nearly 20 years, working in production, radio and television, before returning to Melbourne in the early 1970s.
By the early 1980s, Bruce was performing in small acting roles, and as an extra in soaps and serials such as Prisoner, Sons and Daughters, Neighbours, Janus and The Flying Doctors.
There were many early pioneer period dramas being made in Melbourne at the time, so Bruceās impressive handlebar whiskers landed him cameo roles in shows such as Five Mile Creek opposite Nicole Kidman and Quigley Down Under with Tom Selleck.
Describing himself as being more of a director than an actor, Bruce started up a theatre group on the Mornington Peninsular where he met his wife Kate, before moving to Foster to live closer to her aging parents.
He joined the Foster, Music, Arts and Drama Association (FAMDA) in 1996, where Bruce directed two plays a year and built accompanying sets for 10 years, winning several awards.
Like a true handyman, Bruce said that of all the inventions and technical advancements in his lifetime, (television, mobile phones, space travel etc), that the greatest invention was the battery powered drill.
These days Bruce keeps himself active with a full calendar of social activities, crossword puzzles, reading, gardening, mowing the lawn, chopping wood, walking to the shops, tinkering on projects at menās shed, and going on annual trips with the Welshpool and District Horticultural Society.
Having recently broken his pelvis after a machine fell on him, Bruce has been taking life one day at a time.
As one of the last surviving veterans from The Battle of Leyte, he travelled to Townsville in August as part of the living legends parade for the VP80 commemorations.
Bruce attributes his longevity to clean eating, with a diet of no meat, lots of fish and very little processed food, and the support of his wife Kate.
