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Julian McMahon, the Australian actor who I believe was related to a former Australian Prime Minister, has died aged 56 from cancer. I once guessed the month and year that he was born in and assumed that he was born towards the end of July 1968, and I was just a few days away from being spot on! McMahon appeared in various films and TV series such as Charmed and the film Magenta, but in 1990 at the age of 21, it was his role as Ben Lucini in Australian soap opera Home and Away which made him a familiar name, although character names seem to be more in the public's conscience. Ben was married to Carly, played by Sharyn Hodgson, and ironically, his future real-life wife Dannii Minogue also appeared shared a number of episodes in the series, with some scenes with him onscreen at the same time, playing Emma Jackson with a different onscreen partner to herself. These episodes were when the UK was at least a year behind Australia with regards to episodes when it started over here in 1989 rather than the original 1988 date over there, and it wasn't until around 1997 until the UK had caught up with Down Under at least. McMahon appeared in nearly 150 episodes before he decided to leave.
Growing up, (and this is a very good time to admit this), I did have the odd "same-sex crush" when I was younger, and one has to to say, some 34 years on that Ben Lucini did stand out to me back then, and one could easily see Carly's perspective of him (and I make no apology for saying so on here). Ben's bare-chest and swimming trunks "on the beach" appearance with his partner Carly in the 1990-1991 opening titles of Home and Away (mostly 1991 in the UK) along with their character and actor names next to their appearances became familiar in around 600 or so episodes and a couple of years into the series. I suppose that Ben Lucini was also a bit of (I say this now in a complementary and affectionate way, saying this in these days of the recent Pride celebrations) a gay icon, wearing skin-tight jeans and beige shorts during his stint in the series, such as when episode 588 was shown around the May Day Bank Holiday in the UK in May 1991 (and I also happened to see the episode again as part of an omnibus edition on the Living TV satellite channel in around August 2000 when I got the channels on the old ntl system for the first time).
This episode was when an engaged (at that point, I believe), Carly and Ben's double bed collapsed, making a loud noise and sending years of ceiling dust down to the room below. We got to see Ben and his interesting jeans from a rather exciting angle to the viewer as Ben was bending down to investigate tightening the screws on the double bed, while picking up one of them with a positive smile to the camera, indicating what could have caused the bed to collapse in the first place. Here it is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywTkzggPgTE&t=340s - In another episode, Ben seems to develop a damp left-handed back pocket in his skin-tight beige shorts while sitting on a newly-laid chicken's egg and trying to search for the aforementioned bird underneath a caravan -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wegd4mXUXLY&t=1230s - By the time Angel arrived a couple of years later, normality seemed to prevail again. Indeed, I am certain that Julian McMahon, (just like Ben Lucini), were both presented as being good and friendly individuals to the viewer, and Ben was regarded as being: "a lovely guy, he's very honest, very open" and: "relaxed and easy-going" and neither Ben or Julian would have had a transphobic or homophobic bone in either of their bodies. I am certain that both males would be absolutely and completely flattered and honoured at having both at male and female fans that they happen to have interest in them both.
Australia and her entertainment world must be still mourning for the loss of one of their most talented and sexiest actors, who died of the cancer at the same age as my late mother did.
Growing up, (and this is a very good time to admit this), I did have the odd "same-sex crush" when I was younger, and one has to to say, some 34 years on that Ben Lucini did stand out to me back then, and one could easily see Carly's perspective of him (and I make no apology for saying so on here). Ben's bare-chest and swimming trunks "on the beach" appearance with his partner Carly in the 1990-1991 opening titles of Home and Away (mostly 1991 in the UK) along with their character and actor names next to their appearances became familiar in around 600 or so episodes and a couple of years into the series. I suppose that Ben Lucini was also a bit of (I say this now in a complementary and affectionate way, saying this in these days of the recent Pride celebrations) a gay icon, wearing skin-tight jeans and beige shorts during his stint in the series, such as when episode 588 was shown around the May Day Bank Holiday in the UK in May 1991 (and I also happened to see the episode again as part of an omnibus edition on the Living TV satellite channel in around August 2000 when I got the channels on the old ntl system for the first time).
This episode was when an engaged (at that point, I believe), Carly and Ben's double bed collapsed, making a loud noise and sending years of ceiling dust down to the room below. We got to see Ben and his interesting jeans from a rather exciting angle to the viewer as Ben was bending down to investigate tightening the screws on the double bed, while picking up one of them with a positive smile to the camera, indicating what could have caused the bed to collapse in the first place. Here it is - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywTkzggPgTE&t=340s - In another episode, Ben seems to develop a damp left-handed back pocket in his skin-tight beige shorts while sitting on a newly-laid chicken's egg and trying to search for the aforementioned bird underneath a caravan -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wegd4mXUXLY&t=1230s - By the time Angel arrived a couple of years later, normality seemed to prevail again. Indeed, I am certain that Julian McMahon, (just like Ben Lucini), were both presented as being good and friendly individuals to the viewer, and Ben was regarded as being: "a lovely guy, he's very honest, very open" and: "relaxed and easy-going" and neither Ben or Julian would have had a transphobic or homophobic bone in either of their bodies. I am certain that both males would be absolutely and completely flattered and honoured at having both at male and female fans that they happen to have interest in them both.
Australia and her entertainment world must be still mourning for the loss of one of their most talented and sexiest actors, who died of the cancer at the same age as my late mother did.