A Shuttle reader emails us with a fascinating piece of trivia after spotting our mention of the Melbourne born actor Frank Thring who died in 1994.
Not only did Thring have a name that almost forces one to lisp when pronouncing it, he had the most wonderful mellifluous lisp himself.
Thring was a gifted stage actor who appeared with Laurence Olivier in Royal Shakespeare Theatre productions and in numerous Hollywood classics like Ben Hur, King of Kings, The Vikings the British flick Doctor in The House and in his later years one of the Mad Max films.
Born into a theatrical family in the 1920's, his father Frank W, Thring owned a small film production studio in the burgeoning Aussie film industry. ( It is little known that the very first feature film ever made was an Australian movie The Story of the Kelly Gang in 1906)
The Thring family has a very special claim to fame that should endear their name in movie industry history.
Frank Senior was the inventor of that most necessary piece of equipment in the making of every film production- the clapper board !
