John Fegan (actor)

Fegan grew up in the Falls Road area of Belfast and moved to Australia in 1929. He made his way to Sydney where he worked as a labourer, including as a harbourside worker on The Hungry Mile during the Great Depression. He became involved in the worker's theatre movement, in particular with the New Theatre League from the 1930s onwards, receiving generally positive reviews for his performances.[1]

Fegan continued working on the docks throughout his working life, never committing fully to his acting career.

He joined the Australian army during World War II and served in New Guinea.

Fegan appeared uncredited as a drover in the 1960 film The Sundowners. Robert Mitchum, who starred in the film, is quoted as having said of that production "We didn't have stuntmen, so they got an Irish expatriate off the docks, and he beat the tar out of me" (referring to filming brawl scene).[2] Fegan was the Irish expatriate in question.

In 1970 John Fegan guest starred in an episode of The Link Men, yet another Australian police drama. It would have been a footnote in a short-lived series, but for an incident on set.[3] Two young actors were performing or rehearsing a fight scene when Frank Packer, the owner of the Network, came in. Packer, who had been a boxer in his younger days but who at the time was in his mid-sixties, declared that they were doing it wrong and demonstrated the correct technique by putting the actor playing the police officer in a headlock. Fegan, also in his sixties, had been watching from behind the camera and suggested that, since the young actor was the one who was supposed to be performing the headlock then perhaps Packer should demonstrate on him (Fegan) so the young actor could watch. Packer got Fegan in the same headlock but Fegan, who had also been a boxer in his younger days, got the better of him and Packer ended up on the ground. According to an article about the event in the Sydney Morning Herald, Packer's hearing aid came flying out and Fegan lashed out and crushed it with his foot. Packer insisted that Fegan be fired on the spot. Upon being advised that Fegan was performing a single episode guest role only, Packer's response was reportedly "Well, sack him when he's finished".

Radicalised both by his formative years as a Belfast Catholic (having been involved with the Fianna before leaving Northern Ireland) and the Great Depression, Fegan was active in a variety of left wing movements associated with the Australian labour movement in Sydney throughout in particular his early life, including the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), the Sydney variants of the Unemployed Workers Movement/Workers Defence Committee (UWM/WDC) and a small group called the "Irish Terrorists Association" (one of the ten members of which it later turned out was an undercover policeman).[4]

• John Fegan at IMDb