Born in Lismore, NSW in 1948, Peter Hepworth was initially an actor. He later became known as a writer for film and television.

Acting career

The son of writers John Hepworth and Oriel Gray, Peter played ‘a workhouse boy’, and later, ‘the Artful Dodger’ in Melbournes premiere season of Oliver. Following this, he undertook juvenile leads in The Miracle Worker and Critics Choice for J. C. Williamson.

He toured Victoria with The Young Elizabethan Theatre Company, bringing Shakespeare to regional secondary schools, and performed in Union Repertory Company productions. This included The Royal Hunt of The Sun and Moby Dick Rehearsed.

He appeared in television character roles for Macbeth, Homicide, Division Four, Ryan, Bellbird and Alpha Scorpio.

Success in screen writing

In 1968, Peter began writing for the popular television series Bellbird. Over the next four decades he produced more than 250 screen hours of television scripts covering many genres. His work covered prime time programmes such as The Sullivans, Cop Shop, Blue Heelers, State Coroner, The Flying Doctors and Good Guys, Bad Guy. He also wrote for young adult television series Ocean Girl, Saturdee, The Henderson Kids, Chuck Finn and L’il Horrors.

Ocean Girl also found success as a young adult novel. It was published in 1994 (Mammoth, Melbourne), 1995 (Hyperion, NYC) and 2000 (Antje Gornig, German Translation).

Peter wrote the original screenplay for Hammers Over the Anvil ( 1993) and the several unproduced screenplays; Deadline Kal (1986) with John Hepworth, Springing Grandma, and No Time On (2007) with playwright Graeme Forsythe.

Peter’s last major work was Velvet Rebel, a stage play on the life of early feminist and academic Jesse Webb. It was commissioned by The Royal Historical Society of Victoria and performed in 2010.

Death

Peter died in 2011.