Phillip Adams

Australian columnist, provocative and prolific best-selling author, distinguished broadcaster and film-producer known as the 'Godfather of Australian Film,' Phillip Adams was named as one of Australia's 100 National Living Treasures by the National Trust in 1998. Born in a rural town in Victoria, he left school in his mid-teens. Largely self-educated, he has authored over 20 books, including "The Unspeakable Adams," 1977, "The Inflammable Adams," 1983," "Retreat from Tolerance," 1997, "Talkback" and "A Billion Voices," which have altogether sold over a million copies. Adams has been a contributor to many influential publications and newspapers such as The Times and The Financial Times in London, the New York Times. His journalism has appeared in The Australian for over three decades. Adams was the author of the report that inspired Prime Minister John Gorton to revive the Australian film industry in the early 1970s. Working with Barry Jones, he devised the Experimental Film Fund and was the driving force behind the Australian Film and Television School. Adams devised the South Australian Film Corporation for Premier Don Dunstan, which became a model for similar bodies in all other States. Adams has produced more than a dozen major Australian films, including "The Adventures of Barry McKenzie," 1972, "Lonely Hearts" 1982 and "We of the Never Never," 1982. He has received many awards including the film industry's highest accolade, the Raymond Longford Award for "Outstanding Services to the Australian Film Industry" in 1981. His many roles in the industry have included Chairman of the Australian Film Commission, Foundation Chairman of the Commission for the Future, Foundation Chairman of the Film, Radio and Television Board, Foundation Member of Film Victoria, Foundation Chairman of the Independent Feature Film Producers' Association, Chairman of the Australian Film Institute and the Victorian Government Representative on the Children's Television Foundation. Adams has also written and presented TV and radio series. "Adams' Australia" which was part of BBC TV's contribution to Australia's 1988 bicentennial celebrations also proved popular in the UK, US and Canada. His other TV programs include two series of "The Big Questions" with Science Professor Paul Davies, and "Death and Destiny" filmed with Paul Cox in Egypt about the country's ancient civilization for ABC TV. As presenter of "Late Night Live" on ABC Radio, he has interviewed thousands of the world's most influential thinkers including politicians, historians, archaeologists, novelists, theologians, economists, philosophers and conversationalists. Adams' casual approach has become a trademark for Late Night Live, as has his humor, curiosity, his ability to flesh out rare insights from his guests, and his amazing store of anecdotal knowledge. Board memberships have included Greenpeace Australia, Ausflag, CARE Australia and Film Victoria. He is currently a director of Families in Distress Foundation, the Montsalvat Artists' Society and the Australian International Organizing Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles. He is the Australian representative on the International Committee of Index on Censorship, London. He is a board member of the Don Dunstan Foundation, serves on the advisory board of the Centre for the Mind at Sydney University and the Australian National University, is a member of the Council for Media Integrity, New York, and a board member of the Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. foundation chairman of the Commission for the Future. His many board memberships include Adelaide's Festival of Ideas, Brisbane's 'Ideas at the Powerhouse" and the Families in Distress Foundation. Other board memberships have included the Museum of Australia, Greenpeace Australia, CARE Australia, the Australian Children's Television Foundation, Film Victoria and the Anti-Football League. Adams' honors include two Orders of Australia, the Senior ANZAC Fellowship (1981), the Australian Humanist of the Year (1987), the Golden Lion at Cannes, the Longford Award (for services to the film industry), the Henry Lawson Australian Arts Award (1987) and an honorary doctorate from Griffith University. The International Astronomical Union named "a minor planet orbiting the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter" as 'Phillip Adams' in 1997. He is also a prominent philanthropist who has been a board member of Greenpeace Australia and CARE Australia. A vocal atheist and founding patron of the Australian Skeptics, Adams presents himself as the voice of reason and sanity in a battle against religion and practices such as Astrology which he sees as New Age nonsense. A passionate archaeologist, he reportedly has the largest private collection of rare antiquities in Australia, including Egyptian, Roman and Greek sculptures and artifacts. He has three daughters from his first marriage and one daughter with his current partner, Patrice Newell, with whom he lives on cattle property specializing in the production of chemical-free beef. Link to Wikipedia biography