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Joe Hasham

Australian actor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ6210229
Source-derived summary

Joseph Christopher Hasham (Arabic: جو هشام) (born 4 September 1948, Tripoli, Lebanon) is a Lebanese-born Malaysian based artistic director, actor, director and writer, he is a former radio and TV actor who was previously based in Australia and in the 1970s became notable through his role of dependable and decent gay lawyer Don Finlayson in television soap opera Number 96.

He subsequently emigrated to Malaysia in 1984, where he has worked on stage, video post-production and as a theatre entrepreneur, writer and director and commercial producer alongside his wife Faridah Merican.

Career

Hasham was born on 4 September 1948, in Tripoli, north Lebanon, after arriving in Australia he graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1968

Hasham made several appearances in television series produced by Crawford Productions.

When Number 96 began in 1972, it was an instant hit. Original cast member Hasham became one of the most popular cast members, regarded as a sex symbol by many fans. He reprised the role in the feature film version of the serial, in which his character engaged in a gay kiss with the closeted Simon Carr (John Orcsik), although the shot was later cut from the film. Hasham continued to play the role until Number 96 ended in 1977.

Later in the show's run, a spin-off series focusing on Hasham's character switching to a career as a private investigator also failed to pan-out.

After the series ended, Hasham continued his acting career with roles where he was part of a television series ensemble. His most widely seen post-Number 96 acting performance in Australia was likely an ongoing role as villain, Ken Hansen, in soap opera The Young Doctors in 1979.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Joe Hasham” as australian actor. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1948, 1984, 1968, 1972—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1948-09-04. The account is most persuasive where Hasham, Australian and actor can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian actor. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6210229. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1984, 1968 and 1972.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Joe Hasham”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Joe Hasham primary sources, Joe Hasham archive and Hasham research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Joe Hasham”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Joe Hasham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.