TV Actor Paul Karo Has Died

Actor Paul Karo, who won a Logie award for his portrayal of openly gay TV producer Lee Whiteman in the long-running Australian soap The Box, has died.

Karo passed away on Friday, just two months before his 90th birthday, TV Tonight reported. His cause of death was not disclosed.

The actor, who was born in Scotland and worked in New Zealand, had a career that spanned decades and included work on both the stage and the screen. Karo appeared in titles like Beauty and the Beast, Quiet Night, and Consider Your Verdict before he landed the role of Lee Whiteman on The Box. Produced by Crawford Productions, the beloved Australian soap was set in a fictional Melbourne television station, called UCV Channel 12. Karo portrayed the character of Lee Whiteman, an openly gay television producer, during a time when homosexuality was illegal throughout much of Australia.

The actor’s trailblazing role drew plenty of praise, with television historian Andrew Mercado previously commenting on TV Times story featuring Karo discussing LGBT representation in Australian media, “How incredible to think that back when homosexuality was illegal, a family magazine was happy to talk about this, and Aussie viewers were open to learning new concepts and were cool with it. And then both shows ended and it took two decades for anyone to go there again. Funny that.”

Karo starred in nearly 200 episodes of the show from 1974 until 1976, and won a Best Australian Actor Logie in 1976, becoming the first actor to win an award for portraying a gay character, per Q News. He also portrayed the character in a 1975 film adaptation of The Box.

Despite the trailblazing role, the actor ultimately decided to step away from The Box out of fear of being typecast. He had previously played a gay man in in Crawford’s drama Division 4, and he told telling TV Week, “Everyone thinks of me as playing the role of a queer. They haven’t had the opportunity to see me do anything else.”

Following his short tenure on The Box, Karo went on to star in Prisoner, The Sullivans, Cop Shop, and Carson’s Law, and also had guest roles on shows such as Phoenix, Janus, Blue Heelers, and Good Guys Bad Guys. On the big screen, the actor appeared in Evil Angels, Paperback Romance, and Lucky Break, among others. His last credited role was in the 1999 video game M.U.G.E.N., per his IMDb profile.