George Ogilvie AM and his identical twin brother Jim were born in Goulburn, NSW, and brought up in Canberra, the eldest of a hardworking baker’s family. At 21 George escaped to England, and found a job with a provincial fit-up company. In 1955 he joined the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust’s first theatre company, then Melbourne’s Union Theatre Repertory Company, where he began directing. He then spent three years studying mime in Paris under Jacques Lecoq, worked as French mime and English comedian until joining John Sumner in 1965 to form the Melbourne Theatre Company. He was director of the South Australian Theatre Company 1972-76. Directing with the Australian Opera and the Australian Ballet followed before he was drawn into film by George Miller at the time of Mad Max. In 1988 he was awarded the Byron Kennedy Memorial Award for services to the film industry; and in 1966 a Keating Creative Fellowship to write his memoir, Simple Gifts.