Bruce Venables (2019)
Bruce Venables (born in Hobart, 1949) is a former actor who played three different characters on Home and Away. He was the first ever actor to speak on the show. He played a policeman in the pilot episode and in the first minute of the show, he can be seen chasing and catching 8 year old tearaway Frank Morgan.
Bruce is married to Judy Nunn who played Ailsa Stewart from 1988 to 2000. They met in 1985 and married in 1988. Like his wife, he is now an author.
Pre H&A[]
Bruce worked as a policeman for many years before becoming an actor. He started out with the Tasmanian police force before moving on to join the Hong Kong Police.[1] He moved to Sydney in 1984. His first TV credit was Sons and Daughters in 1986 and he worked steadily in TV and film until 2013 [2]
Home and Away[]
The policeman who caught Frank
Bruce's first appearance on Home and Away was in the pilot episode. In a flashback to 1978, Bruce was back in police uniform. He pursued and caught tearaway Frank Morgan in the first minute of the show and set in train all that was to follow.
Max and Heather Riley
In 1991 he returned, playing Max Riley. Max and his wife Heather answered a newspaper ad placed by Marilyn Chambers. Marilyn was looking for her long-lost parents and for a while it looked like they were the Rileys. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and they left again, disappointed.
He made a further guest appearance in 1997, as farmer Bill Wilson.
After H&A[]
Bruce made guest appearances on many Australian TV shows such as GP, Heartbreak High, Murder Call, Wildside, Water Rats, Love is a Four Letter Word, All Saints and Rake.
Bruce and Judy Nunn
He is now a full-time author and to date has written six books [3]
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