Leonard Teale
Australian actor (1922-1994)
Leonard George Thiele AO (26 September 1922 – 14 May 1994), professionally Leonard Teale, was an Australian actor of radio, television and film and radio announcer, presenter and narrator known for his resonant baritone voice. He is best remembered for his role in the long-running Australian police procedural drama Homicide as David "Mac" MacKay.
As a professional actor he adopted Teale – a homophone of his birth surname, Thiele – as a stage name.
Biography
Early life and military service
Leonard George Thiele was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Maude Henrietta Thiele, née Rasmussen, and Herman Albert Thiele, a chemist. He attended Milton State Primary School and Brisbane Grammar School (1934–38) on a scholarship. However, the family's financial situation during the Great Depression forced Leonard to leave school and enter the workforce. He worked as a junior clerk for Brisbane City Council's Electricity Supply Department. In his spare time, he took up amateur drama, with local repertory groups. From the age of 17, he augmented these activities with a role as a part-time radio announcer, after successfully auditioning at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in Brisbane.
Following the outbreak of World War II, Thiele joined the Militia and served as a signaller.
“Leonard Teale” enters the record as australian actor (1922-1994). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Leonard, Teale and Australian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Leonard Teale” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Leonard, Teale and Australian provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6525783. VIAF identifies the subject as 34404080. The Library of Congress control number is nr2003038647. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1994 and 1934.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. 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.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Leonard Teale”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Leonard Teale primary sources, Leonard Teale archive and Leonard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Leonard Teale”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Leonard Teale” 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.