Richard Davies

Today I'm going to learn about Richard Davies. He plays Jimmy Proudman on Offspring.

You know, usually I do perfectly well at accepting the fact that the characters I see on TV are played by actors who have a totally different name. But in this case, it's bothering me. I don't want his name to be Richard Davies. I want him to be Jimmy Proudman!

Really. I'm in a bad mood right now. And I'm taking it out on a name.

But still. Richard? He's so not a Richard.

Not that I don't like the name Richard. It's lovely.

But it doesn't fit the face of Jimmy Proudman.

Anyway....

I'm going to start looking at the filmography of Richard Davies.  I'm going to talk about some of the stuff that's there but not everything. So...if I miss your favorite Richard Davies appearance, please forgive me.

Well, first of all. I think IMDb has made a mistake.

They say Davies' first appearance was in a 1964 TV show. I might be wrong about this, but I'm doubting Davies was even born in 1964. I'm guessing he was born in the 1980's.

OR he could be a vampire.

I'm going to pretend Davies is just a normal human and imagine I didn't see that 1964 thing.

In that case, the first thing on Davies' filmography is an episode of Neighbours in 2008. He played nurse Peter Hart. The Perfect Blend website actually has a small description of Peter Hart. And a photo! The Perfect Blend is really dedicated to details. It's quite awesome.

On the show, there's a premature baby. Peter Hart is the nurse who comes in to check on the baby and mother. It sounds like his role was pretty small.  That's why I'm surprised he gets a paragraph on the website. I'm surprised, but appreciative.  Stuff like that makes my research more enjoyable.

From 2008-2009, Davies was one of the stars of The Saddle Club. I've heard of that. From what I remember, it has an Australian connection but also a Canadian one? Maybe it's filmed in Australia but takes place in Canada. Or something like that.

The show was on for three seasons, and Davies was in 26 episodes of the third season.  He played a guy named Max Regnery.

I'm seeing other names in the credits I recognize. Brett Tucker (Dave the Vet) from McLeod's Daughters is one of the main stars. Then I also see Ariel Kaplan—Dena's sister.  That's about it.

IMDb lists the filming locations for The Saddle Club. It's Victoria—Dalysford and the Yarra Valley. And I see that I'm right. It's an Australian/Canadian project.

YouTube has some of the episodes. I'm going to watch one and see if I spot Jimmy Proudman.

I was thinking the show was like Camp and the cast would all have fake accents. But so far, they sound fairly Australian.

I guess the show does take place in Australia.

So far I haven't seen Richard Davies. Though I think I see Ariel Kaplan. She looks very much like her sister.

I'm going to have to try another episode.  I didn't see Davies in the last one. I was skimming the video, though. Maybe I missed him.

He's in the credits of this other episode. He flashes by at around 1:33 and then appears quickly again towards the end of the credits.

He's in the scene beginning at 6:54 and talks at 7:06. I love his voice.

The Saddle Club website has a page about Max Regnery, and they also talk about Davies.

Max Regnery runs Pine Hollow Stables,where the show takes place. It's a family business. Before he ran the business, his father and grandfather did it.

He doesn't like overbearing parents who force their children to ride horses. I don't either.

Also, Max is laid back and relaxed but not lazy. I guess that combination makes sense. Well...yeah definitely. I guess it's someone who works hard, but they're not uptight or obsessive about it.

As for Richard Davies, The Saddle Club Website says he graduated from the National Theatre Drama School, in 2005.  I'm shocked to see something that's not NIDA!

It says here that Davies prefers playing people who are left of centre, and since Regnery isn't like that, it was a challenge to play him.  I think left of centre would mean someone is a bit strange?

Well, this person on Yahoo Answers says it's more about being liberal—more willing to experiment. It can be politically speaking or something else.

I think I'm definitely left of center.  And I think Jimmy Proudman is too. Maybe the whole Proudman family is, but I think Jimmy and Geraldine are more so than the others.

Around the same time that Davies was on The Saddle Club, he was also in ten episodes of the Kerry Armstrong show, Bed of Roses.  He played a football captain.  I can't find much about it.

In 2010, Davies was in a short film called When the Wind Changes. I bookmarked it, and I'll watch it later.  Oh! And he also wrote it. So I definitely want to watch that.

And here's another 2010 short film that's available. It's called One Moment.

There's actually a lot of short films here.

I don't think I'll be motivated enough to watch all.

Or maybe I will.

With one of the movies (The Father) I can find only the trailer. I'll watch that now.

 It looks intense. Davies doesn't appear until the end.

Wait. I have to go back. I was going to mention something on Davies' filmography, but I got sidetracked.  In 2009, he was in an episode of the second season of Rush.  He plays Jerrod. I wonder if Jerrod will be a criminal or victim. I miss that show. I look forward to getting back to it. Though I'm enjoying my current shows—The Straits and Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms.

Let me get back to 2010...which actually comes before The Father short film. That was released in 2011.

I'm not doing a great job of being chronological today.

2010 is when Jimmy Proudman came into our lives. Richard Davies appeared on 66 episodes of Offspring. I'm guessing that's about all the episodes they had.

Yep. IMDb says I'm right. They say Nina, Billie, Jimmy, Geraldine, Zara, and Kim were in all the episodes. Though I remember Billie having a few episodes in which we saw her only from a computer screen. And what about the fourth season? Was she not missing from a few episodes?  I could be wrong.


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I really like Jimmy Proudman. He's one of those characters I wish were real. He's just so nice and easygoing. I also like how his character had a lot of growth. In the beginning of the series, he's very nice and adorable. But he's not very successful career-wise and is kind of floating through life. Then by the end, he owns a very successful taco business, is married, and has two kids.

I'm not sure I like what I just said. It sounds like I'm very NOT left of center—that to be a successful person you have to settle down, get a job, and have a family.

But that's not the case. It's not like Jimmy Proudman got a job at his local bank and changed his whole personality. (Not that there's anything wrong with working at a bank. It's just not a good fit for Jimmy Proudman).  The thing that's wonderful is that Jimmy Proudman found success while staying true to himself.

Davies played Jimmy Proudman from 2010-2014. I don't think there's been an official announcement yet about whether the show is going to have a sixth season.

I'll go check.....

Well, I Googled and didn't see any recent news. It looks like it's still up in the air.  I think season 5 had a great series finale, but still. I'd be super happy to hear there's going to be another season.

In 2012, Davies did a few things besides Offspring.  There was a TV movie called Beaconsfield.  One of the stars of the movie is Lachy Hulme, who co-stars with Davies on Offspring.  The movie is about a mine collapse in Tasmania. It happened in 2006. I'm not sure if I knew about this disaster.

Also, in 2012 Davies appeared in another program with Lachy Hulme. This was Howzat! Kerry Packer's War.  I wrote about this mini-series a few days ago when I wrote about another Offspring star, Matthew Le Nevez. It's like an Offspring reunion. Although the three men were all still staring on Offspring, so it wasn't quite a reunion yet.

Davies has an upcoming movie with another Offspring star Deborah Mailman. Oddball.  It also has that little girl I keep seeing—Coco Jack Gillies. I feel like she's haunting me.

I consulted Lord Wiki to see if he has anything to say about Richard Davies. He does say something but not much.

So I'm going to look elsewhere.

Here's an interview.  They ask him why Offspring is so popular. His answer is a bit boring to me—kind of blah and generic. I had no idea it would be this successful but I’m not surprised because the show has such a good collaborative team behind it. Whatever you do in this industry, if it strikes a chord with a few people then it’s a really satisfying feeling.  

Why do people so often say they didn't expect something to be that successful? Am I the only one that dreams big?

Or maybe I let my imagination run away with me. Plus, what I imagine to be successful usually fails. So maybe it's best to never NOT something will be successful. Maybe by imagining success, we jinx ourselves.

Most everything else in the interview is also pretty blah to me. The one thing I found interesting is Davies says he's working on a full-length film script. That's cool.

Facebook has an interview with Davies. I've never seen an interview on Facebook.

They give me his age in 2013. It's 30. So now he'd probably be 31.  That means he was probably born around 1983.

I like how Davies describes Jimmy's change. He says, He was forced to take stock towards the end of last season with the baby coming. He’s been a leaf blowing in the wind but now he’s had to develop these roots, stay put and be responsible. I think that's a good way of putting it.

The interviewer asks if Davies talked to his friends who had kids, to help him get an idea about being a parent. He said he did, and he also held some babies.

I wonder if non-parents can get a good idea about having a baby if they have a strong relationship with new parents.  Before I had kids, I don't think I had much contact with people who had babies.  My younger sister, though, had two older siblings with babies. Plus, she's a pediatric nurse, so she works with some babies. But still she had no idea.  The mothers in our family were talking about having babies. My sister did an exasperated sigh and told us, yes, she understood. She could relate to it all. Why? She had a cat!

Now she has a 5.5 year old, a 4 year old, and a 1 year old. I sincerely doubt she thinks taking care of her human kids is similar to taking care of a cat.

Back to what I was saying about a strong relationship. My sister saw us with our children during family gatherings. She babysat Jack once.  I think she babysat our other sister's children a few times. She had a moderate amount of contact with us as parents, but I don't think she got a clear idea of what parenting was like. If her involvement was more intense, would she have had a more accurate picture?

Now the roles are reversed. She's the one with the small kids. I'm the aunt. I think I see her parenting her little ones about the same amount that she used to see me parenting Jack.  I look at my sister and can strongly imagine how hard of a job she has.  I feel like I do have a clear understanding of her struggles. But is that because I'm seeing it?  Or is it because I remember how challenging it was to parent Jack, and then I multiply that by 3?  If I didn't have Jack, would I watch her with three kids and think, Oh, yeah. It reminds me of taking care of our cat!

I have found Davies' Twitter. I tried finding it through Google and that didn't work. So I went through an Offspring fan Twitter page. I looked through their followers, and that got me to what I was searching for.  On the Twitter page, he calls himself Rick.

Does Rick work better for me than Richard?

No. I still want his name to be Jimmy.

His last Tweet was on September 8. His phone fell in a urinal. Gross.  I should say his most recent Tweet. "Last" sounds like he died. Or he gave up on Twitter.

He doesn't Tweet very often but when he does, he's moderately conversational.  There's a fan with a crush on him, and she asks if prefers Mexican or Japanese. Davies' says he can't choose and that he'd pick a Teppanyaki taco.  I've seen Korean tacos but not Japanese yet. At least I don't think I have.

Here's a photo of a Teppanyaki Taco in NYC.

There's not much here on Twitter, a lot of links, though, to Instagram. So I'm going to hop over to there.

Davies seems to love his dog a lot. There's a very fun selfie of the two of them. And the dog is black! So why does a selfie with a black dog look okay but not black cats?

The black dog looks great in photos.

Davies' most recent photo is from two weeks ago. It's of his dog begging for some breakfast burrito. At least I think it's a breakfast burrito.

Three weeks ago he posted a picture of a seagull. I can't say it's one of the top bird photos I've seen. But it's okay.

Here's Davies doing the ice challenge. I think the cold made him lose his English, and he started speaking in some alien language.

Or maybe he is speaking English. I think he said something about porridge.

It's a very odd ice-challenge. He puts underpants into the bucket, a really large sock, a banana; then pours alcohol into it. He dumps it over his head and only ice comes out.

You know what that means. Richard Davies is a witch!  THAT is why he appeared in a 1964 TV show despite being thirty years old in 2013.

I'm looking at the comments. Other people heard the word porridge too.  Some are referring to some ad in the 1990's?

Here are some skiing pictures from Davies.

Here are some flies having sex.

Here's a video of someone shooting a police officer with a very powerful alien-type gun. It's more proof that Richard Davies is a witch. Or wizard.

Davies posted a photo of his food next to his dog's food.  The dog food actually looks more appealing to me; just because the human food seems to have mayonnaise on it. I have a phobia of mayonnaise.

Not only does Davies take lovely photos of a black dog; he also has a photo of a black cat. It's his neighbor friend. The cat does have some bits of white on it. Maybe that makes a difference? Does white on a black cat make them more photogenic?

Here's a photo of his dog reading a book about dog-training. Of course! An immortal witch who can make socks and underpants vanish, would definitely have a dog that can read.

I'm going to watch one of the short films. This one is called When the Wind Changes.  

So far, the only thing I like about it is Davies' sweater. It's pretty funny.

Ah...now it's getting interesting. Something supernatural might be happening.

Davies and one of the other guys keep saying the same thing.  You know when people say the same thing at the same time; then you say 1, 2, 3, jinx. Well, it happens to these guys continuously

I think the premise is very creative.

And I'm having some laugh out loud moments.

I'll have to give this film a thumbs up.

I just saw on IMDb that this is the film that Davies wrote. Well, he didn't write it himself, but he was one of the writers.  I hope he writes more. It seems he might have good ideas.

Now I'm going to watch another short film. This one is called One Moment.

It takes place in a hostel.

One of the characters is an anti-American American, although I think she might be played by an Australian.

It seems to be a romance between an American traveling in Australia and a Perth guy stopping in Melbourne on the way to New Zealand.

The American is a world traveler kind of girl. The guy has never been outside his own country. I think in real life, it's usually the opposite. Australians travel the world. Americans often stay in America.

Well, many Americans do leave America. I'm not saying we all stay in our own country. But I think it's more common for young Australians to do world traveling.

This movie has educated me about what a goon bag is. I had never heard of them before.

The movie's not overly exciting, but it's nice. It's about how some relationships can be really short—maybe only one evening. But they still can be special.

The last film I'm going to watch is called Mugged.

It's surreal. The description says the show used improv. The whole thing? Or just some of it?

That was a strange film.

Anyway, that's it for now!  See ya later, alligator.


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