Mark Le Buse

Mark Le Buse (born Allan Busey; September 7, 1917 - March 5, 1999)[1] was a Hollywood prop maker, sculptor, and film actor.

After serving in the Navy as an electrician before World War II, and working as a shipfitter during it, Allan Busey found work in Hollywood, doing woodwork and prop construction for the major studios.[2]  He worked on several movies for Paramount, Including Shane, Elephant Walk, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, and 3 Ring Circus.[3]

In 1954, he moved to Hawaii, to escape the Los Angeles smog.[4] In addition to various odd jobs, such as driving a taxi, he began to carve sculptures in driftwood and black coral for the tourist market. After 1960, he sold out of a shop at the Kona Inn on the big island.[5]

He was cast in small roles in 1964's Ride the Wild Surf, starring Fabian and Shelly Fabares, and multiple episodes of Hawaii Five-O in the late 1960s.[6]  In the mid-1960s, he changed his name to Mark Le Buse on the advice of a Shinto priest, who gave him and his second wife Jill new names determined by numerology.[7]

In 1971, Le Buse and his wife left Hawaii, intending to emigrate to New Zealand.[8]  Instead, they spent three years in the Philippines, where Le Buse acted in several low-budget thrillers, before ending up in Western Australia.

His artistic work in Australia included a series of approximately 48 limestone outdoor sculptures,[9] most notably large-scale works for the Atlantis Marine Park near Perth, such as a ten-meter high Neptune with trident (which was Heritage listed by the Western Australia Heritage Council in 2006)[10] and “the disembodied head of Jacques Cousteau.”[11]