Jack Gavin

John F. Gavin (9 February 1874 – 6 January 1938) was a pioneer Australian film actor and director, one of the early filmmakers of the 1910s. He is best known for making films about bushrangers such as Captain Thunderbolt, Captain Moonlite, Ben Hall and Frank Gardiner. Known informally as 'Jack', Gavin worked in collaboration with his wife Agnes, who scripted many of his films.

Film historians Graham Shirley and Brian Adams have written; "although Gavin was prolific his later surviving work shows that his entrepreneurial talent outweighed any he might have had as director."Amongst several claims made later in life or soon after his death was one that he had made Australia's first animated short, an advertising film which featured a koala "lapping up a cough remedy". John F. Gavin was born in Sydney on 9 February 1874, the eldest child of Francis Gavin and Catherine (née O'Brien). Gavin later claimed he worked for a circus as a ten year-old. He moved to the country and worked as a cattle drover, being involved in a record cattle drive from Camooweal in Queensland to Adelaide. "A man of fine physique and imposing presence" he served for a time in the Sydney Lancers as the captain of a squadron. He was interested in acting and received an offer to join the touring company of Bland Holt. He stayed with them for a number of seasons, then travelled to the USA where he worked with Barnum and Bailey's Circus, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He married Agnes in 1898.Gavin returned to Australia and organised his own Wild West Show which was successful at the Melbourne Cyclorama, although he experienced a number of legal troubles. Gavin eventually had a company of 150 before moving into filmmaking. In 1908, he started managing theatres which he did for the next few years.