Michael Preston

Actor Mike Preston spent his youth in the U.K., first as a boxer and then a singer, creating three hit songs before emigrating to Australia at 19. 10 year later, in 1967, he made his acting debut in the South African war drama "Seven Against the Sun." Preston took a turn TV hosting during the final year of the variety show "In Melbourne Tonight," in 1970, and then in 1972, he landed his first TV acting role, which turned out also to be his longest, as the recurring character of Detective Bob Delaney on Australia's "Homicide." That busy two-season run gave way to several briefer TV spots through the '70s and into the '80s, but also to a series of films with increasingly important roles, climaxing in 1981 when Preston co-starred as Pappagallo, the leader of a group of settlers battened down in an oil refinery, in the post-apocalyptic, cult sci-fi hit "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior"; the role remains Preston's most visible. By the mid-1980s, Preston transitioned once again, this time to the far larger American TV market, where he made primarily single-episode appearances on several popular hits, including "The A-Team," "Fame" and "Max Headroom." He continued to land steady TV work well into the 1990s, though in markedly softer genres than where his career began; his final TV roles included an episode on "Baywatch Nights" in 1995, and as one of The Flying Karamazov Brothers, on "Ellen," in 1997.