Michael Beckley is an Australian actor. He has worked with major theatre companies in both Australia and the United Kingdom, and appeared on London's West End in A Few Good Men (starring Rob Lowe) and Cabaret (directed by award-winning director Rufus Norris). He is probably best known for playing Rhys Sutherland, the patriarch of a new family that arrived in the fictional town of Summer Bay in the internationally televised series Home and Away (2000 – 2004). Before and since leaving the soap he has worked extensively in theatre. He moved to London in 2005, where he was based until 2016, appearing on the West End and with major UK theatre companies. He now resides in Sydney, Australia. Career Beckley decided on an acting career just before completing his senior high school studies. Despite protests from teachers he left school one week before his final exams, apparently to force himself onto a certain path. A week later – at 17 years of age – he had landed a permanent position on the Entertainment Staff at Old Sydney Town, an historical theme park near his home town of Gosford, NSW. This was a recreation of Sydney around the year 1800. Here he earned his Actors Equity of Australia card and officially became a working actor. Within two years he took over the role of Town Crier, the leading player for the park. Beckley made his first permanent move to the UK in 1984. He appeared on the London Fringe in All The Way Home and attended dozens of plays in and around London, including many on the West End starring actors such as Anthony Hopkins (Pravda) and Glenda Jackson (Phaedra) and many leading actors of the day. He also took drop-in acting classes at the London Actors' Centre studying Chekhov, Shakespeare, comedy, voice and movement. It was during this time in London that he decided to commit to his decision to be an actor. On returning to Australia in late 1986 he auditioned for Australia's leading drama school NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) but was not accepted. He went and studied part-time under Gillian Owen, a RADA-trained actor, who ran The Sydney Acting School, and then auditioned for NIDA again in late 1987. He was accepted. The next three years saw him studying full-time at NIDA. (Alumni include Miranda Otto, Jacqueline McKenzie, Jeremy Sims and the writer Reg Cribb.) With