Hello All.....I have been a member of The Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society (Fanderson)for close on 25 years and was aware that Bud had had more than a passing connection with Gerrys productions over the years, mainly as a voice artist. He is best known for voicing Dr Tony Grant in the 1966 film "Thunderbirds Are Go !" and Dr Fawn in the Tv series "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons". He also provided the voices for characters in 3 Thunderbirds episodes and for 16 "guest" characters in Captain Scarlet. His only acting on screen role in an Anderson production was as Captain Beaver James in the "UFO" episode Mindbender in which he played a major part with quite a lot of screen time.
In late 2003 Stephen Brown of Fanderson conducted a telephone interview with Bud from his home in Melbourne. The published 10 page article (in FAB #47) included photos of all the puppet characters he voiced and a full page (A5)colour photo of his character in the above mentioned episode of UFO, together with photos from the films "Dracula-Prince of Darkness" (1966)and "The Secret of Blood island" (1965). The interview covered his life and acting career and also the following which I hope you all may find of interest......
FANDERSON:- ".....you also played Mr Bennett, the farmer in another cult television show Catweazle. How did you get the part and what are your memories of the show ?"
BUD:- "At the time, we didn't think of it being a cult show. Unusually for those days, they managed to raise the money to do it on film rather than tape. Richard Carpenter's scripts were wonderful. At the time, he lived not far from us and his children went to the same primary school as mine. It turned out that he was thinking of me for the part of Mr Bennett when he was writing it, which was a happy coincidence because I had previously said to him that I would like to be considered for it. Another coincidence was that I found that Geoffrey Bayldon, who played Catweazle himself, had been my navigator in the film Cone of Silence (1960).
It was a wonderful series to work on. I remember it was shot 29 miles from Charing Cross (central London)- if it had been 31 miles, we would have been paid all our travelling expenses. The farm location was quite close to the flight path of London Airport, so we would sometimes have to wait for planes to fly over before we could do a take. Geoffrey is an actor who has always been able to play much older men than his true age. He's done a lot of TV work and would crop up in all sorts of roles.
At the time that Catweazle was being filmed, my seven year old daughter Virginia was acting in an Ava Gardner film called "Tam Lin" (1970) which was directed by Roddy McDowall. It was quite funny as, when she was filming at Pinewood, I would have to get special permission at the gate just to see her."
FANDERSON:- "Do you still get reminded of your roles in Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Catweazle ?"
BUD:- "Yes I do. It's amazing how many people to this day come up to me and say,"Wait a minute! Weren't you in Catweazle?" When I'm working on TV or film, if anyone finds out that I was a voice on Thunderbirds, even the most hardened technician will ask me all sorts of questions about it. Catweazle seems to have become a TV buff's show because it was so well made as a piece of film for television. I've had some wonderful conversations about it. While I was working on the show, I came up with the phrase 'Lower your sights and raise your standards' by which I mean that you don't always have to be doing a big movie or TV series : you can do a smaller project and really put everything into it."

Thats the end of the discussions about his role in Catweazle. .
I was very pleased to find the issue with this interview as I knew I'd seen it somewhere.....as luck would have it, it was the 3rd issue I flicked through from the vast pile of back issues I have.
I have only this morning received the latest issue of FAB (#63) and it includes,as I expected, a full page tribute/obituary to Bud. It is good to know that he will always be remembered for his contribution to so many series/shows from his long career.
Right....hope you're still awake at this point...sorry to have droned on and on, and hope you found the above of interest.
Cheers
Doug

Thank you so much for sharing that Doug. It was very interesting especially to know he had his eye on the role for a while.

Really good to know that he kept fond memories of the series.
What a terrible shame that he was never able to make it to one of the fete's at Hexwood. I'm sure he would have loved it.

Hi there Dougweazle a very big thank-you from me in sharing that with us, Bud was truely a great guy and as Sue said it was a great shame he never made it back to Hexwood, we all, I'm sure have fond memories of him playing Mr Bennett and as you quite rightly mentioned other memerable parts, there must be many untapped memories and stories out there still waiting to be told, cheers for that Doug. SALMAY! DALMAY! ADONAY!

Thanks for that Doug
It is always good to read something about the marvellous people in Catweazle and especially as it is always usually very pleasant reading. We were so very lucky to have the cast that we got for the series and they all classed is as something worthy to be in and something that they cared very much about.

to further this interesting subject,
i managed to find a kids look-in mag from 1982 that profiles
the movie 'time bandits', and a short interveiw with neil mccarthy in which he talks about the film and his previous roles such as lennie in steptoe movie and as sam woodyard in catweazle, he commented that sam was his most memorable and fond part to play,
just thought this would interest you...

That's nice to know

Hi, Folks !

very interesting to read this and coincidence ... because for a long time wanted to put this one in here:

http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/subjects/tingwell/interview8.html

A Tingwell interview of 2002!

Interviewer: Robin Hughes
Recorded: November 13, 2002

here´s an interesting quote from it:

Right now, at this point in time, what are you thinking about your career? What's next for you Bud? :

"....And 'Innocence' is soon to start in London. I've had a request to go to London to do some DVD interviews for the series I did in England in the, in 1969, called 'Catweazle'. So a lot of very exciting things and, if my health holds up, I'll - I just want to potter along doing all those. And it's a, it's - and none of them, I have to say, "I wonder if it's good for my career?" I frankly don't care. It sounds like fun. Not fun, you know, beaut, the whole thing."

---------------------------------------------------

It is interesting to read this and that Bud intended to do this ...sadly he did no interviews for the DVDs as far as I know ... ? - and he always seemed to me a bit of a recluse, it was not easy to get an autograph of him. I sent him his book "Bud - My Life" with the request to sign it in winter 2008 and did not receive it back. Maybe he was too ill at that time already. Had informed him also about Hexwood 2009. As far as I know Carol contacted him the last years as well concerning the Hexwood-celebrations and she received no answer as well... of course you have to accept this, but it does not quite fit with what he says in the interviews ... nevertheless, a very interesting man and a brilliant actor, whom we never will forget. And if you can, get the book, it sure is worth a read !

Thanks for that Doug - it's good to know that Bud thought so highly of Catweazle and considered it one of his "highspots". I would have loved to meet him too, but at least we'll always have him on DVD to enjoy and admire. Someone previously mentioned the film "Cone of Silence" in another thread, and it prompted me to see if I could get it via the Internet. Fortunately I was successful, and it's a very good film. I thought it would be nice to see Bud and Geoffrey together in a totally different context. Geoffrey only appears in a very short scene, but no matter, he's there! A good film for any Peter Cushing fans too - he turns in a marvellous performance.

Good one Wendy...I'll start looking out for that here in Aus. I absolutely LOVE Peter Cushing but have never seen that movie.

Kevin would you remember the title of the magazine in which Neil McCarthy had that little interview?
Thanx

Country USA

Cheers Doug that was a very good article thanks for shareing it with us.

Town/City Southampton