Chips Rafferty MBE (26 March 1909 – 27 May 1971) was an iconic Australian actor.
Born John William Pilbean Goffage in Broken Hill, New South Wales to John Goffage, an English born stock agent, and Australian born Violet Joyce. Pike, A. (1996) "Goffage, John William Pilbean [Chips Rafferty] (1909 - 1971)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, Melbourne University Press. Gaining the nickname "Chips" as a school boy , Rafferty studied at Parramatta Commercial High School before working in a variety of jobs, including miner, sheep shearer, drover and airman before making his film debut in Ants in His Pants in 1938. Rafferty's onscreen image as a laconic bushman struck a chord with film goers and Rafferty soon became the most popular actor in Australia, appearing in films like Forty Thousand Horsemen, The Rats of Tobruk, The Overlanders and Eureka Stockade.
Rafferty married Ellen "Quentin" Jameson on 28 May 1941 Legge, J. (1968) Who's Who in Australia, XIX Edition, Herald and Weekly Times Limited, Melbourne. , and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force the next day and entertained troops. He was discharged on 13 February 1945, having reached the rank of Flying Officer. World War II Nominal Roll, Commonwealth of Australia. blank">http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/script/veteran.asp?ServiceID=R&VeteranID=886025 Accessed 27 January 2008.
Hollywood also beckoned, and Rafferty appeared in American fare like _The Desert Rats, opposite Richard Burton; The Sundowners, with Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr; and Mutiny on the Bounty, with Marlon Brando. The most bizarre appearance was with Elvis Presley in Double Trouble in 1967. Initially Rafferty was marketed in the United States as the Australian version of Cary Grant before being allowed to resume playing variations of the laconic bushman role that had served him well thus far.
Rafferty also produced and wrote films for his production company Southern International, which he founded in 1953 Mayer, J. (2004) "Lee Robinson (1923 – 2003)", Screening the Past. 16/gmfr16.html" target="_blank">http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr_16/gmfr16.html Accessed 2 January 2008. , although none of these reached the same level of popularity as those he appeared in for other companies. These included producing The Phantom Stockman, producing and writing the original screenplay for King of the Coral Sea (1953), producing and providing the original story for Walk into Paradise (1956) and producing Dust in the Sun (1958) and the Ambitious One (1959).
In addition to his film work, Rafferty also guest starred in a range of television shows, including _Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Tarzan, The Monkees and The Wackiest Ship in the Army (as a different character to the role he played in the movie version).
In the 1971 New Years Honours, Rafferty was awarded an MBE for his services to the performing arts
Rafferty collapsed and died of a heart attack while walking down a Sydney street at the age of 62 shortly after completing his role in Wake in Fright "Obituary: Chips Rafferty, Australian film actor", The Times, 29 May 1971. . He wife Quentin predeceased him in 1964 and they had no children .
In 1989, Australia Post issued a stamp depicting Rafferty in recognition of his work in Australian cinema while in March, 2006, Broken Hill City Council announced that the Entertainment Centre would be named in honour of Rafferty.
He was a Freemason http://www.freemasonrysaust.org.au/freemason.html#famous.
