Sadly, today would have been his 82nd birthday but one of Magnetic Island's most colourful and charming characters, Paddy Boyd, didn't quite make it. He passed away on Saturday at his home in Picnic Bay.

Paddy was only recently the centre of attention when he led the singing with a clear and true voice at the St Patrick's Day celebrations at the MI Sport's and Recreation Club. He was a genuine card with a quip and a cheeky comeback for anybody he chatted with.

But there was a lot to Paddy Boyd, a man who spent much of his life in the movie business specialising in continuity (making sure the details of a set were maintained from one shooting to the next) and in 1999, Magnetic Times produced a Community Close-Up story on Paddy and his fascinating life from very humble beginnings to a life among the stars. In memory of Paddy we present that story below.



Community Close-up
Paddy Boyd - From stoushes to stunts with the stars (Part 1)
Published 7 May 1999


Paddy Boyd is yet another example of the extraordinary individuals who can be discovered, living quietly on Magnetic Island. At seventyeight, this living Island treasure, has worked with such luminaries as Ronald Reagan and Liz Taylor through to Sean Connery and even Sigourney Weaver. But Paddy's path to a career among the world's most glamorous was literally via several schools of hard knocks.

"I was born in Dublin in a time when the city was shaking with bombs and gunshot" says Paddy Boyd as he settles into a chair on the verandah above his sundrenched garden in Picnic Bay. Paddy speaks with a soft brogue, a voice that makes listening a joy as the vowels rise and fall like a gently rocking boat. Paddy's early years were however, anything but gentle.

Paddy was one of ten kids born into the woefully poor, Liberties slum in the centre of the city. To make life trickier, Paddy's mum was a Catholic and his father Protestant which was hardly helped by the rebellion which was underway at the time. Eventually Paddy's dad converted to Catholicism for the sake of his wife but that didn't stop the school kids picking on Paddy, calling him "proddy woddy". Not surprisingly, Paddy found himself averaging four or five school fights per week. Fortunately, he always won. "This was probably because of my mother, she was very hard and very strict too. She was a tinker, born in Cashel, Tipperary and as she had travelled from town to town knew how to play it tough!" says Paddy.

"My sister took me to my first (convent) school where I had a great time" he says "but then I was sent to the Johns Street School which was very tough". This was preceded by an incident which still makes Paddy angry today. He'd hoped to get a better education at the Christian Brothers but when he showed up on the near freezing doorstep, seeking admittance, the brother looked him up and down without inviting him into the warmth to be considered, then sent him off. The Christian Brothers were, according to Paddy, only interested in the children of the middle class and seeing he had no shoes decided "I wasn't good enough".

Paddy felt that the Johns Street School denied him the education he needed to get somewhere in life. Life was so tough that at lunch time Paddy would sprint a quarter of mile with the other poor kids, back to the Liberties for a free school dinner. "If we were late, the door would be shut and we would go hungry" says Paddy who adds "But , gee, I could really run after that!".



Paddy Boyd on location in Lybia


Paddy's youth was a real battle. School fights had it seemed tempered him for a more professional use of his fists. Paddy would regularly enter boxing competitions and if he won, which was often the case, he would try to make sure that his name wasn't engraved on the small medal. This way he could pawn it for a shilling and, for fourpence, buy hot fish and chips for a meal.

Somehow Paddy managed to scrape together enough money for a ticket to England. In 1938, at just seventeen, he landed, absolutely penniless, in Liverpool. He went to the Salvation Army who gave him a job cleaning tables. Here he met some other Irish boys and asked them what they were going to do. They told him they were about to join the British Army and Paddy thought "That will do for me too!".

On January 12, 1939, Paddy enlisted and after six months of full training was placed in a battalion and sent to Yorkshire for manoeuvres. After two months the operations were unexpectedly halted. Orders came through that Paddy was to drive directly to Bristol where they boarded a ship which sailed for the Bay of Biscay. Sitting off the coast of France for a couple of days the soldiers were then officially informed that Great Britain was now at war with Germany. Landing shortly after on French soil, Paddy was amongst the first British soldiers to go to war.

Poorly equipped and very much under strength, the British and French were out gunned by Hitler's superior forces. The bloody retreat to Dunkerque is not a subject Paddy could bring himself to discuss.




Paddy buys it as a stuntman


Paddy made it back to England with the tattered remnants of his regiment but was soon dispatched to Iceland where he was stationed a Reykjavik. He had only just arrived after a seasickening voyage and because it was St Patrick's Day, the day after he arrived, managed to get himself thoroughly written off with some Americans. The next day, with a legendary, St Pat's Day hangover Paddy was asked if he could represent the Army in a boxing contest against what turned out to be a light heavyweight. As a middleweight, Paddy was already at a size disadvantage but agreed. It wasn't a good decision and being out of training and still nursing a sore head, Paddy was stopped in the second round by an American who'd previously been a contender for the Golden Gloves in Chicago.

At about the same time Paddy happened to be standing in a street in St Albans with an Irish mate when he noticed a girl looking at a window display of dolls. He remarked to his mate that he thought "the girl had eyes the same colour as the dolls'". She mistook the remark on account of the strong Irish accent and took it to be an insult. Without further ado she landed what Paddy described as "a terrific right hook to my ear!". Paddy had just met Gwendolyn. They were married soon after and have happily remained that way for the last fiftyeight years.

Paddy's next foray into the ring was "another light - heavy affair". But this time he'd gone back into training and wasn't hung over. Paddy won the fight and enough money to send to Gwendolyn for their first child.

Paddy's next fight saw him up against a Paddy Quirk, a heavyweight. Paddy Boyd K.O.'d him in the first round. Quirk later went on to win the heavyweight championship of all Ireland.

Following "D Day" in which Paddy drove a truck straight out of the beach landing craft up through the firelight. He carried on as a driver, eventually, all the way to Germany.

Paddy's experiences in the thick of the western war front took their toll however. He had developed a nervous condition diagnosed as psycho-neurosis. His symptoms were an unusually quick temper. "I couldn't be talked to and became over excited. It would fill me up!" said Paddy! It sounded more like a perfectly human response to an often, prolonged inhuman situation but Paddy was nonetheless sent back to England to hospital and later discharged from the army with a disabled serviceman's pension.

Paddy tried to return to the boxing ring but was knocked back due to his disability.

Soon after he decided to answer a job vacancy with a MGM Film Studio's Art Department. His main task was in set dressing and continuity. This opportunity saw Paddy adding the detailed props to scenes and after each scene was shot, taking several photographs of the set to ensure that everything would be kept in place for the next scene. This meant keeping up a constant eye for details such as how much had been drunk out of a glass and where it might be left on a table.



Paddy Boyd on a movie set, where the background was an artistic illusion


Paddy's first film was The Hasty Heart starring none other than Ronald Reagan, who Paddy described as "A real gentleman!" and "Very easy to get along with!".

Paddy describes himself as "quick at picking something up". His adaptability and physical prowess kept him in work and enabled him to also perform as a stuntman. "I would be the bloke who would fall down the stairs and when I reached the bottom would be face down so that when the actor took my place he could turn around and be recognised." said Paddy.



Paddy Boyd (right) with Sir John Mills (Hayley's dad)


Another film he worked on shortly after was Ivanhoe where he met and worked with a young Elizabeth Taylor. Paddy was obviously impressed. He described Taylor as "out of this world" and having "a big heart". He recalls that he was on set with Taylor one day when the phone rang. Taylor had recently met actor Michael Wilding and was obviously keen to meet him again. Paddy answered the phone and it was Wilding asking for Taylor. Paddy stepped back out to where Taylor was sitting with others and teased her a little saying, "Liz, there's a gentleman on the phone for you, some bloke by the name of, er ah Mike somebody, Mike Wilding." at which Taylor burst out "Oh my Michael! Oh my Michael!".The call confirming Michael's interest led eventually to marriage (Liz's second).

Paddy also attested to Liz's sense of fair go when the crew called a stop work over a wage negotiation. On hearing of the problem Liz apparently cried "Well why don't you just pay them!".

Paddy met Richard Burton later too describing him as "Very down to earth!".

One of the next films Paddy worked on was Tank Force shot in the Libyan desert. He doubled on stunts for Victor Mature, scrambling up onto the front of tanks, opening the hatches and tossing in grenades.





Paddy Boyd stunting with Bonor Colleano on the Lybian set of Tank Force



There were plenty of other films in this period including Hitchcock's Stage Fright with Marlene Dietrich but as the fifties drew to an end Paddy was thinking more about the future for his, now four, children. At the same time his brother in law suggested they join him in Australia.

In 1959 Paddy worked on The Grass Is Greener starring Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum who Paddy describes as a "very hard man". Paddy should know, he sparred in the ring with Mitchum who he found to be an excellent boxer. Perhaps the movie's title was more appropriate for Paddy than anyone else. The grass certainly did seem greener in Australia, especially where Paddy's children were concerned and the big decision was made in 1960 to migrate to Australia.



Paddy Boyd with one of the cast on the Santa set



"I was always very adaptable to any sort of job" said Paddy who arrived in Port Melbourne in June 1960 with wife Gwendolyn, and kids, Dennis, Colleen, Christopher and Ronald.

In those halcyon days of low unemployment Paddy soon picked up work. After a couple of stints in a factory and at labouring, Paddy saw an ad for staff to work on the just opened Channel 9 TV station. He applied and was accepted. His experience in movie work was a rare commodity in Australia at the time. Most of the people who were moving into TV had a stage background and although TV was very different to movie making, Paddy's experience placed him in an uncomfortably overqualified position. Resentment of his expertise by some of the other studio staff and his growing annoyance that the same people were continually seeking his technical advice led to Paddy's resignation.

Paddy was missing his old life and this wasn't helped by a letter from a friend at MGM who'd written that there was a nice film coming up to be shot in Jordan. It was to be called Lawrence of Arabia. "I really wanted to be there" said Paddy who continued "It made me feel miserable and I kept thinking I'd just left England too soon!".

Paddy took a job as a railway porter for a while and then teamed up with an Irish gang who were installing the State Electricity Commission transmission line towers across Victoria. "It was bloody hard work" said Paddy as each of the four legs of a tower required sixteen foot deep by eight foot square footing holes to be dug, jack hammered or blasted out before the leg could be placed and the cement poured.

Things become pretty tough at home for Paddy too. He'd come home one day to find some papers to be signed for son Dennis. Thinking they were apprenticeship papers, Paddy was shocked and dismayed to find that they were in fact permission papers which, seventeen year old Dennis required to join the Australian Army and go to Vietnam. Paddy could see the horror of war that scarred his own life about to descend on his son who, just like Paddy had nearly thirty years before wanted to enlist because his mates had. With a heavy heart and deep misgivings, Paddy signed. Gwen had told him that if he didn't, Dennis would have hated him for the rest of his life. Each day of the war, while Dennis was away, Paddy lived in dread of telegrams that may bring news of Dennis coming to grief. Fortunately Dennis survived Vietnam and returned home safely.

Later, Paddy worked for a French polishing company. He was quick to pick up the technique as an inspection of the splendid bookcases Paddy has made for himself will show. He was also pretty handy with a sales pitch which put him in good stead with the boss.

Somehow, twenty years had passed and as Paddy put it, "My wife and family decided that I should take my wife to England for a holiday.

Arriving in London in 1980, Paddy's brother who was a construction manager for a film studio took us out to Hatfield House where friends were working on The dark Crystal. There I ran into a very old pal, Harry Newman who was in charge of studio dressing. He handed me an envelope saying "that's your 'bat and wicket' which is cockney rhyming slang for 'union ticket'. When I protested that I was on a ten month holiday he said "Oh no! You start work at Pinewood on Monday!" (four days away).



Paddy was always a part of the Island's St Patrick's Day celebrations - and this year he was featured on the cover of Magnetic Times


So much for the holiday. Fortunately Gwen was agreeable, "She loved it!" said Paddy - and so Paddy's second career in movies was underway. "When I walked back through the studio gates I got such an adrenalin rush thinking how good it was to be back!" said Paddy.

The first movie he worked on was the James Bond, For Your Eyes Only starring Roger Moore. Paddy was less than enthusiastic about Moore who apparently laid claim to some curtains from a set that Paddy had been promised.

Next was Outland starring Sean Connery. "During breaks I'd get chatting with Sean and we realised we had a great deal in common." said Paddy, "We both grew up in slums, him in Edinburgh and me in Dublin" Connery told Paddy "We are both survivors". Like Paddy's boxing career, Connery had also had left behind a very promising soccer career. He had in fact been signed up at one stage to play for Manchester United. The two became close friends and Paddy is eagerly awaiting Connery's arrival in Longreach for the filming of Waltzing Matilda where Paddy hopes to catch up with him during the shoot.

Paddy moved on to the shoot for The Kull and then Heart To Heart with Stephanie Powers and Robert Wagner. Paddy speaks warmly of Powers who also became a good friend.

After a holiday interlude at 'home' in Australia, Paddy returned to England to shoot Octapussy. While shooting Paddy met, Cubby Broccilli the Bond producer. Broccilli discovered that Paddy was the guy who'd done the stunts in Libya for Tank force a film he'd been involved in too. Broccilli introduced Paddy to his daughter who has, more recently, following Broccilli's death, become the Bond producer. Paddy recalls Broccilli's heartfelt manner of introducing him to his daughter, telling her that "Paddy was family!" and that "In the studio it takes all to make a movie. We can't do without eachother!". "That was the first time I'd ever heard that said in a studio but it is very true" said Paddy.

The next film was Superman III with Christopher Reeve. "He was another true gentleman" said Paddy "I was really broken up when he had his accident" he said.




Paddy with Tommy Steel the star of the hit musical "Singing in the Rain"



Next was another Bond film, A View To Kill, and then Aliens II.

In Aliens II Paddy remembers an incident when a particular door on the spacecraft would not open all the way. Paddy was asked to fix it. He did so with a nail but when actress Sigourney Weaver had to close the hatch in another scene, she couldn't. Paddy's nail had really done its job. At the end of the shoot, Paddy was presented with an eighteen inch nail.

Paddy was very impressed with Sigourney Weaver's dedication and professionalism. "She was very focussed and when she came to do a scene she would normally get it right on the first take." A wander through the props storage room was a creepy experience with suspended "aliens" still dripping some of their slime.

At the end of Aliens II Paddy finished up with Pinewood and prepared to finally return to Australia. His intended ten month holiday had ended up closer to ten years.

In preparation for his return he wrote to son Dennis who said "Don't go back to Melbourne, come and live on Magnetic Island where we are!" .

Paddy and Gwen are settled and happy on the Island though some Islanders clearly get on his goat. "There are many knockers who make it hard when people have good ideas" he said without elaborating.




Paddy and Gwen at home in Picnic Bay
(May 1999)


Paddy is also very concerned about the nearby bombing conducted in Halifax Bay. "When you feel the ground shaking, you would have to wonder how this could affect all the precariously balanced boulders around the hills and especially above the roads".

Paddy Boyd has seen a lot of action in his life. Both real and pretend, but as he is about to celebrate his seventyeighth birthday, the action has slowed somewhat and Paddy seems content with his now quieter life with Gwen in their idyllic retreat in Picnic Bay




Paddy Boyd's death notice can be found here
http://www.magnetictimes.com/index.php?p=10