They’re Australia’s golden family – with Chris Hemsworth and his famous brothers Liam and Luke embodying wholesome, hard-working Aussie values that have made them household names.
The trio have long credited their rugged Outback childhood in the Northern Territory with shaping their athletic lifestyles, love of fitness and humble outlooks.
From often walking barefoot in public to living in Byron Bay, Chris has consistently done things on his own terms, citing his unconventional upbringing as key to shaping his worldview.
‘When I was younger my family and I lived in a remote community in the NT. Some of my earliest and happiest memories are from that time,’ Chris once shared on social media.
But behind the Hollywood smiles and global fame lies a family history marked by tragedy – including the shocking downfall of Chris’ uncle by marriage, NT folk hero-turned-cop killer Rod Ansell.
Rod, who was married to Chris’ aunt Joanne van Os – who is the sister of Chris’ mother Leonie – was once a beloved national figure.
They’re Australia’s golden family – with Chris Hemsworth and his famous brothers Liam and Luke embodying the wholesome, hard-working Aussie values that have made them household names across the world. Pictured with their mother Leonie
A barefoot bushman turned folk hero, his extraordinary survival tale in 1977 inspired Paul Hogan‘s blockbuster Crocodile Dundee, the most financially successful Australian movie of all time.
But 22 years later, that same man would become infamous for something very different – a drug-fuelled shooting spree in the NT that left a decorated police officer dead and ended with Ansell himself being gunned down by police.
It was a shocking fall from grace, one that left scars on both the Hemsworth clan and the nation.
This exclusive Daily Mail story examines how the uncle of three of Australia’s most beloved celebrities went from celebrated folk hero to infamous cop killer.
From bush legend to reluctant Celebrity
Rod Ansell shot to national fame in 1977 when, at just 22, he was stranded for almost two months when his boat capsized on the crocodile-infested Fitzmaurice River, in the Northern Territory, 280km south of Darwin.
Armed with little more than a rifle, two puppies, and tins of food, he utilised his keen survival skills to live off the land – shooting buffalo, drinking their blood for hydration, and sleeping in trees to escape predators.
When news of his ordeal finally spread, Ansell became a national sensation. His story was turned into a book and documentary (To Fight the Wild), and his barefoot, larrikin charm made him a talk show favourite.
In 1981, Ansell agreed to be interviewed by English talk show host Michael Parkinson in Sydney, and his unlikely tale reached an even greater audience.
But behind the Hollywood smiles and global fame lies a family history marked by tragedy – including the shocking downfall of Chris Hemsworth’s uncle by marriage, Rod Ansell
Ansell appeared for the interview barefoot and told Parkinson that while staying in the city, he had slept on the floor of his Sebel Townhouse room.
That is what Hogan’s character does when staying in a New York hotel in Crocodile Dundee, and just like in the movie, Ansell was confused when confronted with a bidet.
Also like Hogan’s character, Ansell was accepted by Arnhem Land’s Indigenous community and spoke Urapunga fluently.
‘When Crocodile Dundee came out… people started ringing me up and saying they saw all these similarities between my experience and the movie,’ Ansell once recalled – although he soon became bitter that he received no credit or financial compensation from the movie’s producers.
Crocodile Dundee, made for less than $10million and released in 1986, took more than $300million at the box office.
A Hemsworth by marriage
It was during his rise to fame that Ansell met Joanne van Os, a young radio operator working in a remote Aboriginal community. The pair married in 1977 and had two sons together.
Through Joanne, Ansell became connected to the Hemsworth family, with Joanne’s sister Leonie later raising three boys who would go on to make their mark on Hollywood.
While Chris and his brothers were still children, Ansell was already an outback legend.
Rod, who was married to Chris’ aunt Joanne van Os, was once a beloved national figure. Pictured: Joanne with her daughter Ali
A barefoot bushman turned folk hero, Ansell’s extraordinary survival tale in 1977 inspired Paul Hogan’s blockbuster Crocodile Dundee, the most financially successful Australian movie of all time
But as the Hemsworth boys were happily growing up and developing their passion for performing, Ansell’s own life was unravelling.
The Hemsworth brothers have occasionally spoken about how their Uncle Rod – but never mentioned his tragic end.
In 2017, Luke Hemsworth told HuffPost that his uncle was an inspiration for the iconic Mick Dundee character.
‘I think there were a lot of guys that inspired that story. I was related to – my mum’s sister married a guy called Rod Ansell, who’s notorious as one of the people who has inspired that story,’ Luke told the publication.
A bitter decline
However, by the 1990s, Ansell’s life had spiralled into turmoil. A bitter land dispute with the NT government saw him lose his cattle property.
His marriage collapsed in 1992, and he turned increasingly to drugs.
Once known as a rugged survivalist, he became a heavy cannabis smoker and later an amphetamine user – those close to him noticed his paranoia deepening.
He ranted about Freemasons kidnapping his children and was convinced dark forces were following him.
The bushman – who once embodied strength and resilience – was slowly consumed by addiction and delusion.
But 22 years later that same man would become infamous for something very different – a drug-fuelled shooting spree in the Northern Territory that left a decorated police officer dead and ended with Ansell himself being gunned down
A tragic end
On August 2, 1999, Ansell’s descent reached its tragic climax.
Armed with a rifle and shotgun, he opened fire on a caravan south of Darwin, before ambushing a police roadblock the next morning.
Sergeant Glen Huitson, a respected father of two, was shot dead.
His colleague, Senior Constable James O’Brien, returned fire, and after a brutal five-minute gun battle, Ansell himself was killed. He was 44.
People across Australia struggled to comprehend how a once-beloved larrikin bushman, known for his cheeky charm, could commit such a shocking act – so completely at odds with the nature that had made him a national hero.
Ansell’s motive for taking on the police, rather than using his bush skills to escape them, remains unclear to this day.
A coronial inquest later revealed he was in a paranoid psychotic state brought on by chronic amphetamine use, and was not thinking clearly.
It shocked Australians to learn that the barefoot bushman who once charmed a nation had become a drug-crazed killer.
Chris’ aunt Joanne later remarried and was struck by tragedy yet again in 1999, when her 16-year-old daughter Ali was killed in a freak boating accident in Phuket, Thailand.
In 2018, Chris starred in a tongue-in-cheek Tourism NSW campaign, pretending to appear in a Crocodile Dundee reboot. In interviews he never mentioned his uncle, despite the uncanny link between Ansell and the world-famous character
For the Hemsworth brothers, Ansell’s death was both a personal and public tragedy.
While they’ve rarely spoken about it, his story remains part of their family history – a reminder that even in Australia’s most celebrated families, heartache runs deep.
In 2018, Chris starred in a tongue-in-cheek Tourism NSW campaign, pretending to appear in a Crocodile Dundee reboot.
It was a shocking fall from grace, one that left scars on both the Hemsworth clan and the nation
In accompanying interviews, Chris never mentioned his uncle, despite the uncanny link between Ansell and the world-famous character.
The closest Chris has come to publicly talking about Ansell was in a 2011 interview with Frank Lovece, in which he said: ‘My most vivid [childhood] memories were up there in Bulman, with crocodiles and buffalo,’ – referring to the location where Ansell died.
Chris, Liam and Luke have all gone on to forge remarkable careers in Hollywood, bringing pride to their mother Leonie and the Van Os family line.
But in the shadows of their fame lies the tale of Rod Ansell – the uncle who helped inspire an Australian legend, only to meet a dark and violent end.
