Personal Life and Views
In late 1997, Friels was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. However, his treatment was successful and he is one of the very few victims of this disease to go into long-term remission. During his treatment he even continued to work on the set of Water Rats, until eventually the impact of the chemotherapy stopped him from working, and he chose to have his character written out of the series by sending him on a sailing journey around the world. At this time however, he also continued his stage work, and was performing in Sydney Theatre Company's Macbeth.
Friels has been married to actress Judy Davis since 1984, and they have two children, Jack and Charlotte. They were briefly separated, but later reconciled. The relationship was briefly in the media when an argument led to a court order against Friels – however they remained together at that time.
Friels believes that social and political awareness comes with the territory of acting, and is known for his engagement in policy debates, including industrial issues such as workplace relations and free trade. He publicly criticised Bush administration policy in the Middle East, and supported the Sydney Peace Foundation. His engagement with social issues has also been evident in his acting work, with two prominent examples being his lead role in Ground Zero, in which he played a cameraman investigating British nuclear testing in South Australia, and his appearance in ABC television drama Bastard Boys, in which he played union official John Coombs.
Read more about this topic: Colin Friels
Famous quotes containing the words personal, life and/or views:
“We should stop looking to law to provide the final answer.... Law cannot save us from ourselves.... We have to go out and try to accomplish our goals and resolve disagreements by doing what we think is right. That energy and resourcefulness, not millions of legal cubicles, is what was great about America. Let judgment and personal conviction be important again.”
—Philip K. Howard, U.S. lawyer. The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, pp. 186-87, Random House (1994)
“If anything characterizes the cultural life of the seventies in America, it is an insistence on preventing failures of communication.”
—Richard Dean Rosen (b. 1949)
“The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns; all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.”
—William James (1842–1910)