Jimmy Little
Folk rock, Musical Artist
1937 – 2012
Who was Jimmy Little?
James Oswald "Jimmy" Little, AO was an Australian Aboriginal musician, actor and teacher from the Yorta Yorta people and was raised on the Cummeragunja Mission, New South Wales.
From 1951 he had a career as a singer-songwriter and guitarist, which spanned six decades. For many years he was the main Aboriginal star on the Australian music scene. His music was influenced by Nat King Cole and American country music artist Jim Reeves. His gospel song "Royal Telephone" sold over 75,000 copies and his most popular album, Messenger, peaked at No. 26 in 1999 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1999 Little was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and won an ARIA Award for 'Best Adult Contemporary Album'. On Australia Day 2004, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia with the citation, "For service to the entertainment industry as a singer, recording artist and songwriter and to the community through reconciliation and as an ambassador for Indigenous culture". As an actor he appeared in the films Shadow of the Boomerang and Until the End of the World, in the theatre production Black Cockatoos and in the opera Black River. As a teacher, from 1985, he worked at the Eora Centre in Redfern and from 2000 was a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney's Koori Centre.
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- Born
- Mar 1, 1937
Cummeragunja Reserve - Also known as
- Little, Jimmy
- James Oswald Litle
- James Oswald "Jimmy" Little, AO
- Uncle Jimmy
- James Oswald "Jimmy" Little
- James Oswald Little
- Parents
- Spouses
- Marjorie Rose Peters
(1958 - )
- Marjorie Rose Peters
- Children
- Ethnicity
- Indigenous Australians
- Nationality
- Australia
- Profession
- Education
- University of Sydney
- Died
- Apr 2, 2012
Dubbo
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Jimmy Little." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/jimmy_little>.
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