Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Mr Movies - Bill Collins OAM

2009
Evert Ploeg

oil on linen (support: 132.0 cm x 183.0 cm)

Bill Collins OAM (1934-2019), television movie host and critic, was a high school English teacher and lecturer at teachers’ college before beginning a record 55-year stint on Australian television. In 1963 he became a presenter and producer on the ABC program Roundabout, talking about films. He proceeded to work at Nine, Seven and was seen nationally on TEN before joining Foxtel at the time of its launch in 1995. During the last 23-year phase of his career he presented Golden Years of Hollywood on the cable channel FOX Classics, telling prospective viewers about conditions on set, interesting cameos, rising stars and what to look out for in key scenes. Enormously popular, and a household name from the 1970s to the 1990s, genial Collins had a great deal more serious film knowledge, and, indeed, general knowledge, than might have been supposed by many of his viewers (at the University of Sydney he took honours in Latin, and a master’s degree in education). Besides meeting many of his ‘Golden Age’ idols, he amassed an enormous personal library of books, magazines, biographies and memorabilia, a resource for his innumerable film reviews, essays and lectures in film studies at the University of Sydney. He said in 2009 ‘In those days there were no esoteric magazines on film. Most people didn’t take film seriously. I did. I investigated film. I read a lot. I filled in and amplified my knowledge with books. The only thing many people read about a film is from a women’s magazine.’ Collins was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2009 and received the inaugural ASTRA lifetime achievement award in 2013. He retired in 2018.

Artist Evert Ploeg writes

Like most people, I have grown up watching Bill Collins on the small screen so it was a true thrill to meet such an icon of Australian broadcasting. Meeting up with him in his home, he was very accommodating about my vision for this portrait. The focus naturally needed to be Bill’s face and those trademark square spectacles. I had an idea to use an image synonymous with Bill’s passion and with classic film… a black and white film leader provided a very appropriate narrative. Using the film leader also allowed me to introduce motion – a sense of movement into the composition. I wanted the viewer not only to see Bill, but also to hear the crackling and see the flickering… to imagine a film is about to begin. As film director George Miller said when Bill was presented with his induction into the Logie Hall of Fame, ‘When I was starting out as a kid and I was interested in cinema – it was Bill who basically taught us. There was no other place you could find this stuff in Australia except by watching Bill Collins presentations and that’s the way we made the connection to that great era of film making, so that makes him very special and unique to us culturally.’

The work was highly commended in Perth’s Black Swan prize for portraiture in 2009.

Gift of Joan Collins and the Todd-Wilson family in memory of Bill Collins 2019. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Evert Ploeg/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Evert Ploeg (age 46 in 2009)

Bill Collins OAM (age 75 in 2009)

Donated by

Bill Collins OAM (1 portrait)

Joan Collins (1 portrait)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency