Rod Ansell: From Crocodile Dundee’s Real-Life Muse to a Tragic End, and the Hemsworths' Silent Witness

The Hemsworth family’s ties extend to Rod Ansell, the Northern Territory bushman whose 1977 survival tale helped inspire the character that would become Crocodile Dundee. Ansell, the husband of Chris Hemsworth’s aunt Joanne van Os and brother-in-law to Chris’s mother Leonie, rose to national fame after surviving for almost two months when his boat capsized on the Fitzmaurice River, about 280 kilometers south of Darwin. His barefoot, larrikin persona captivated Australians and helped bring a new national myth to life, even as the film’s producers would later be criticized for not crediting his role in the broader story.

In the years that followed, Ansell's fame faded into a more controversial space. He had two sons with Joanne, tying him by marriage to the Hemsworth family, whose three brothers — Chris, Liam and Luke — would go on to achieve global recognition in Hollywood. Leonie Hemsworth, the boys’ mother, helped raise them, and the family has long credited their Outback upbringing in the Northern Territory with shaping their work ethic and humility. Ansell’s presence in that lineage has never been a central public thread in the Hemsworth narrative, but it remains a shadowed link between the bush legend and the modern celebrity clan.

The legend of the barefoot bushman was reinforced by a wave of media attention in the early 1980s. Ansell’s extraordinary survival story became a book and a documentary, and in 1981 he appeared on the English talk show circuit, notably in a Sydney appearance with Michael Parkinson, where he spoke of his life in Arnhem Land and his experience of living in a city hotel room. He was noted for his fluency in the region’s Indigenous language and his apparent ease with audiences who saw in him a symbol of rugged Australian resilience. In interviews he recalled being told his life mirrored aspects of Hogan’s Crocodile Dundee, though he would later express frustration about not receiving financial credit from the film’s producers. Crocodile Dundee, released in 1986, was produced for under $10 million and became one of Australia’s most financially successful films, grossing well over $300 million worldwide.

As Ansell’s star rose, so did his legend, but the late 1980s and 1990s brought a sharp reversal. A bitter land dispute with the Northern Territory government left him without his cattle property, and his marriage dissolved in 1992. Those around him began to see the decline: increased cannabis use and, later, amphetamine use, accompanied by paranoia and unfounded beliefs that powerful forces—like Freemasons—were after his children. His mental state deteriorated, and the line between bush legend and reality blurred.

On August 2, 1999, Ansell’s life took a violent turn. Armed with a rifle and a shotgun, he opened fire on a caravan south of Darwin and then ambushed a police roadblock the following morning. Sergeant Glen Huitson, a respected father of two, was killed; Senior Constable James O’Brien returned fire, and after a five-minute gun battle, Ansell was shot dead at age 44. A subsequent coronial inquest found he was in a paranoid psychotic state caused by chronic amphetamine use and not thinking clearly, a stark coda to a life that had once captured a nation.

In the years since, the Hemsworth brothers have largely kept Ansell’s name out of their public narrative. Luke Hemsworth told HuffPost in 2017 that his uncle-in-law was an inspiration for the Mick Dundee character, but he and his brothers have rarely spoken about him, and Chris Hemsworth’s public comments have often steered away from Ansell’s darker chapter. The actor’s 2018 Tourism NSW campaign, which played on Crocodile Dundee’s cultural footprint, did not reference Ansell publicly. The family’s broader story remains one of rise and resilience, with Ansell’s life providing a cautionary note about the fragility of myth and fame.

Ali van Os, Joanne’s daughter, also faced tragedy in 1999 when she died in a boating accident in Phuket, Thailand, underscoring that the Hemsworth family’s close ties to Ansell sit within a broader tapestry of hardship.

Ansell’s tale endures as a footnote in the legend that surrounds Australia’s modern celebrity clan. It is a reminder that every household name can carry a complex family history, including figures who once inspired national icons but later fell from grace.