Sandy Harbutt (1941 – 21 November 2020) was an Australian actor, writer and director, best known for the outlaw biker film, Stone (1974) starring his friend Ken Shorter. Although it was very successful at the box office and became a cult classic, it was the only feature he ever directed. He was once married to actress Helen Morse.[1]
Harbutt was born in Randwick, New South Wales and studied law before turning to advertising and then acting.[2] He worked extensively in theatre, particularly at Sydney's Ensemble Theatre. An early television appearance was with Shorter, as a pair of Bondi surfies who harass the Wells children in a 1967 color film episode of Adventures of the Seaspray. He had a regular role in the shortlived 1970 Australian TV series The Long Arm.[3]
After making Stone he largely dropped out of screen acting, although he gave retrospective interviews for documentaries about the film and its place in the renaissance of Australian cinema. Harbutt died 21 November 2020 at Wollongong Hospital, aged 79.
Harbutt only made one feature film. Among the projects he tried to make included:
In 2009 it was reported he was working on a bikie musical.[6]
Producer David Hannay who worked with Harbutt on Stone said the most ’negative experience‘ he had as a filmmaker in a career of over three decades was failing to get finance for Harbutt to make another film:
Why have I failed? What is wrong with me? I have failed this person who is such an important part of my life, this person with enormous talent, this extraordinary human being, and I have failed him totally and absolutely. It really is the major low point in my life; if I really dwell on it, I get very angry.... I should have made a difference. Because I should have been able to make it happen. He is far more talented than 999 of the 1000 other people I know... You understand, of course, that he is his own producer. It is not a question of whether he would go to another producer. If he felt so inclined, he would. But, apart from anything else, Sandy needs somebody who is prepared to fold themselves into what he wants to do and be committed to that. That is something you would have to talk to him about.[7]
