Ian Smith, famous for playing Harold Bishop in Neighbours, admits he’s had trouble finding roles due to the popularity of his classic character.
Speaking on Network Ten’s Studio 10, Ian, 79, confesses he initially wasn’t aware he was becoming typecast as ‘Harold from Neighbours‘.
However, he eventually realised he was “digging a hole” he’d never get out of.
Harold was married to Madge (Anne Charleston) and was famously swept out to sea in 1991, only to return five years later suffering amnesia and calling himself Ted.
But Ian says the colourful Harold, which he had played from 1987 through to 2015, did become his undoing.
“I just didn’t wake up to it,” he concedes.
Anne Charleston (pictured with Ian) who played the iconic Madge on Neighbours.
On Ten’s Hughesy, We Have a Problem, Ian told Dave Hughes he’d be told: “Oh you were in Neighbours, you were Harold. You couldn’t possibly be a murdering paedophile.”
Deciding enough was enough, Ian walked past a Neighbours producer’s office one day after lunch and simply said, “I don’t want to do it anymore”.
“After my contract runs out this time I won’t be re-signing,” he told the producer.
Asked if he would have quit sooner, he replied: “I think so. I do think so, yes.”
Ian Smith’s final moments playing Harold Bishop.
Eager to shake the role of Harold, Ian has gone on to play minor roles in Shaun Micallef’s comedy series The Ex-PM and Comedy Showroom: Moonman, where he played himself.
When asked what his dream role would be, Ian says he would like something “divorced from Harold”. Ian admits that while he still does “love the silly old fart”, he wants to stretch himself beyond playing Harold.
“I would like to go anywhere,” he says.
“I would like to go as far from Harold as I can, not to prove it to other people, but to prove it to myself.”
