Tom Burlinson(I)
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Actor and singer born on 14th February 1956 in Toronto, Canada, from
English parents who had migrated to Canada after Word War II. The
family transferred to New Jersey in 1958 and Tom was the typical
all-American youngster with the Little League baseball cap, striped
T-shirt and turned-up jeans. In 1962 the family transferred to England
with the father's job and young Tom went to school with a North
American accent. In 1965, just before Tom turned 10, the family
transferred again, this time to Australia. After six months his parents
divorced and his mother and two younger sisters went back to England,
leaving him with dad and his older sister, Susan. His first public
appearance was as Colonel Pickering in Mosman Primary School's
production of My Fair Lady. Moving to Bayview, Tom went to Pittwater
High School, becoming school captain in his final year. His father
wanted him to be a lawyer but he had other ideas. A friend had been
accepted for NIDA so he auditioned and to his great surprise was
accepted into the class of '74. In 1981 his career break came when he
was cast as Jim Craig in The Man From Snowy River, alongside Kirk
Douglas, Jack Thompson and Sigrid Thornton. In 1983 he starred in Phar
Lap, playing the young Tom Woodcock, alongside Martin Vaughan. Had a
relationship with Nicole Kidman in 1986 during the filming of
Windrider. They dated for nearly two years. Being a great Frank Sinatra
fan since he was about seven, asking his mother to play 'the man in the
hat', he heard of the mini series Sinatra being produced in America by
Sinatra's daughter, Tina. He put himself forward for the main role but
was selected for singing the voice of the young Sinatra. Now he was a
singer and soon sang in his first musical in 1993 - How To Succeed In
Business Without Really Trying. Here he met the young singer and dancer
Mandy Carnie. They married in December 1996. They had their first child
in April 1999 and a second in 2001. In 1998 he created Frank, The
Sinatra Story In Song which opened at the Seymour Centre in Sydney,
Australia then on to other major cities. Incredibly, Old Blue Eyes, The
Chairman of the Board, Sinatra died around the opening time of the
show.