TONY INGERSENT
28/11/1939 – 23/12/2025
Anthony Michael Ingersent was born in the British protectorate of Alexandria, Egypt. His father was an English aircraft mechanic and his mother the daughter of a Greek Orthodox Priest. He remained very proud of this heritage, using AngloGreek as his online username for many years.
Tony studied at The Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, in Sidcup, Kent, which led to a stint at Lincoln Rep, where he tackled roles ranging from Agatha Christie and George Benard Shaw to playing a South American Indian, and the front end of a horse in the Christmas Panto. Tony then went on to complete a nine month season at the Mermaid Theatre, which included roles in Macbeth and Pirandello’s Lazarus.
After moving to Sydney in the mid-sixties, Tony’s first job was a schools’ tour as Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Brutus in Julius Caesar, followed by A Taste of Honey directed by Jim Sharman, where the themes of mixed-race relationships and homosexuality managed to offend many audiences.
Tony then joined Hayes Gordon’s Australian tour of Fiddler on the Roof, followed by a revival of My Fair Lady, with Rona Coleman and Robin Bailey.
In 1968 Tony joined the Q Theatre, then a lunch time theatre in the basement theatrette of the original AMP building at Circular Quay, where he performed in many plays including, Twenty-Six Efforts at Pornography, A Slight Ache, Madly In Love and A Dead Liberty. He also directed Hank’s Night, A Ruffian on the Stair, Good Day and others. Tony became one of the Co-Artistic Director/Administrators of the Q with the theatrical dynamo Doreen Warburton, and remained on the board for 25 years.
The following years were productive and eventful for Tony. He played an assortment of pirates in Treasure Island on Clarke Island in Sydney Harbour, understudied Denis Olsen in the lead role of the thriller Deathtrap for J.C. Williamson’s, joined the original Australian production of David Williamson’s Travelling North, directed by John Bell at Nimrod, and toured Queensland in a production of Deathtrap, this time playing the lead.
In 1981 he played more roles at the Wayside Theatre, the Griffin (Stables) Theatre and the Q where he was in Charley’s Aunt, Submariners, Mrs Warren’s Profession and Privates on Parade as Major Flack. Television credits over the next years included A Country Practice, Water Rats, Number 96, Skippy, True Believers and Learned Friends, and two lucrative years as Papa Giuseppe, flogging frozen pizzas. He also played the co-lead in the two hander Educating Rita which toured NSW, Queensland and South Australia in 1985.
Throughout his career Tony wisely supplemented the erratic income of an actor, at the same time following his lifelong passion for music, by taking on the position of Assistant Orchestra Manager with the Elizabethan Theatre Trust Orchestra Sydney (now the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra), Orchestra Manager for the Sydney Youth Orchestra, and in the 1990s he worked at the Australian Institute of Music, running the office, administering programs and coordinating concerts.
Tony died on 23 December 2025. A celebration of his life was held on 17 February 2026 at the Mosman Art Gallery. He will be sadly missed by many.