Chris Haywood

Chris Haywood (born c. 1948) is an English-born Australian actor, writer and producer, with close to 500 screen performances to his name. Haywood has also worked as a casting director, art director, sound recordist, camera operator, gaffer, grip, location and unit manager.

Early life and education
Haywood was born around 1948 in Billericay, Essex, England. He spent his early childhood in Chelmsford before moving to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire where he attended Royal Grammar School from 1959 to 1965. He then started working in the cellars of a local wine shipper before gaining a place at E15 Acting School. After graduating in 1970 he emigrated to Australia.

Career
Soon after arriving in Sydney, Haywood became involved with the Nimrod Theatre Company, helping to build the premises with scrap timber.

He was the artistic director of the Pros and Cons Playhouse at Parramatta Gaol from 1979 to 1981, and established the drama service on Kiribati National Radio.

His acting career encompasses roles in many films and television series.

Haywood is the Patron of the Friends of Waverley Library, where he inaugurated The Nib Literary Award, now known as the Mark & Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. The prize is an annual award of $40,000 given for the quality of research for a published work of literary merit written by an Australian writer and published in the previous 12 months.

Haywood is now the Deputy Captain of VRA Hawkesbury and coxswain of their rescue boat. He is also currently working as a coxswain in the Australian pearling industry for Broken Bay Pearl Farm.

Television
TV credits as an actor include: Homicide, Essington, Against the Wind, Five Mile Creek, Return to Eden, Waterfront, A Good Thing Going, Boys From The Bush, Water Rats, Farscape, McLeod's Daughters, All Saints, Stingers, Grass Roots, Home and Away, The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce and The Pacific. Haywood appeared in Neighbours as Walter Mitchell in June 2013.

TV credits as a writer: Alvin Purple additional material (1976).

Personal life
Haywood was married to actress, Wendy Hughes, c. 1980 and they had a child. They had met while filming Newsfront (1978), their relationship developed soon after. In April 1980 Haywood and Hughes portrayed "screen parents" in a childbirth film, For a Child Called Michael, shown to expecting parents at Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne. The couple separated in 1982.

Awards
His performances have been honoured with three Awards from the Australian Film Institute (from a total of eight nominations) for his roles in the feature films A Street to Die and Emerald City, and for television in Stingers as well as the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Kiss or Kill and the Asian Film Festival Award for In Search of Anna. He garnered three Logie Awards for his work on television-for Essington, A Good Thing Going and Janus. He won the Best Actor award at the Tampa Bay Film Festival in Florida.