Who played The Man From Snowy River?

Answer 1

In the 1982 Australian movie, The Man from Snowy River, Australian actor Tom Burlinson played the title role of Jim Craig.

The movie is based on the poem by Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson, a highly evocative work full of the sound and drama of galloping horses, just made to be read aloud, though like all good writing its feel is gripping simply read silently.

'The Man' isn't named in the poem, but simply described as a lad, a stripling, mountain-bred like his horse, from Snowy River on Mount Kosiusko.

I've heard many claims to know, know of, or be related to, the actual character on whom Banjo Paterson based his poem, but there seems little proof of the lad's existence outside Paterson's glorious imagination. Everyone involved, from horses to poet, is long dead, so those who wish can let their own imagination run free among the flying flint stones.

There are two characters named: Harrison, the 'old man with hair as white as snow', a rider with a fearsome reputation. Clancy of the Overflow, a drover and the other named character, shared Harrison's reputation for horsemanship; the poem says Clancy wouldn't be thrown from any horse as long as the saddle could stay girthed.

The owner of the colt which has somehow got free from Old Regret isn't named, but the young horse is described as extremely valuable.

Harrison forbids the lad to take his horse out to the chase with the crack horsemen, and nobody speaks up for the boy until Clancy persuades Harrison to let him ride.

I won't spoil the ending for you. You can read the whole poem at the link below:

Answer 2

In the film loosely based on AB Paterson's 'The Man From Snowy River', the main character was played by Tom Burlinson.

The bush Ballad of the same name, which was first published in 1890, was based on a real character, Jack Riley, an Irishman. While visiting friends at Bringenbrong Station, a large property in the Upper Murray region, Paterson met Riley who lived in a basic timber hut near Tom Groggin Station. A keen horseman himself, Paterson listened eagerly to Riley's stories as they camped overnight. It was on one of these stories that the ballad 'The Man From Snowy River' was based. Although largely fictionalised, Riley was indeed a superb horseman whose story about rounding up wild horses through the treacherous mountain country, captured Paterson's imagination.