Guy Pearce says his mother made him the man of the house at eight after dad's plane crash
The actor recalls taking on a fatherly role after his father's death in 1976, while balancing school, family duties and early acts of responsibility in Geelong.
Actor Guy Pearce has revealed that he became the family’s father figure at the age of eight after his father, Stuart Pearce, was killed in a plane crash in 1976. The accident occurred during a Nomad aircraft test flight when Stuart, a chief test pilot for Australia’s government aircraft industry and a former RAF squadron leader, was killed at age 39. Pearce and his family had moved from England to Geelong five years earlier.
Ninety seconds into the flight, a large section of the tail reportedly fell off; navigator Pat Larcy survived the crash, while Stuart Pearce did not. Pearce described the moment he learned of the tragedy in conversations he later recalled with WSJ, saying that when he arrived home from school, his mother’s friends were there and she pulled him aside to tell him what had happened.