Profile of Yahoo Serious on Famous Like Me

For other uses, see Yahoo.

Yahoo Serious (born July 27, 1953), originally known as Greg Pead (name-change by deed poll in 1980), is an Australian film maker. He is best known for his 1988 comedy, Young Einstein. He also created Reckless Kelly in 1993 and Mr. Accident in 2000. Serious writes, directs, produces, and stars in all his own movies.

Serious was born in Hunter Valley, New South Wales in Australia. He went to Cardiff Public High School, then worked as a tyre fitter to pay his tuition at the National Art School in Sydney. After being expelled, Serious wrote, produced, and directed his first film, a documentary called Coaltown which explored the social and political history of coal mining, when he was 21. The following year, his television series Lifestyle won the Australian Penguin Award for Best Educational Documentary.

In 1988, Serious wrote, produced, and directed Young Einstein, an intentionally inaccurate movie portraying Albert Einstein as a young farmer in Tasmania who discovers rock music. The movie was an international hit, grossing over $26 million, and propelling Serious to stardom.

In 1993, Serious released his next film, Reckless Kelly, a satire about notorious Australian bank robber Ned Kelly who also becomes a movie star in Hollywood. While Reckless Kelly was a hit in Australia, it failed outside of the country and ended Serious' bid for mainstream popularity. In 2000, Serious released his third film Mr. Accident, about the most accident-prone man in the world. Like Reckless Kelly, the film was not a commercial success, but has a cult following.

Also in August of 2000, Serious tried to sue the search engine Yahoo! for trademark infringement. The case was quickly thrown out because Serious could not prove that he sells products or services under the name "Yahoo," and therefore could not prove that he suffered harm or confusion due to the search engine.

Since Serious has failed to match the success of Young Einstein, he has become a symbol of the passing fad of Australian culture in the United States. However, because of his success as an Australian filmmaker, Serious has become an icon in his home country. Serious received an honorary doctorate from the University of Newcastle, where he originally failed to get his diploma.

Some news reports have confused Yahoo Serious, whose name was Greg Pead, with the antiques dealer in Sydney named Greg Pead who accused the former Royal butler Paul Burrell of having an affair with him in the 1980s. The two are not related.

As of December 2004, Serious is currently working on an epic war movie drama Kokoda: Advance of the Grumpkins about how an overwhelmingly outnumbered and outgunned ragged bunch of Australian soldiers fought a fierce battle as part of the Kokoda Track Campaign which stopped the Japanese invasion of Australia; it is scheduled for filming in 2005.

Sources

• Official Biography, Yahoo Serious official site
• Yahoo Serious at the Internet Movie Database
• Yahoo Sues Yahoo, VNUnet.com, James Middleton. (May 10, 2001)
• That's My Bushranger, Retrospective on the real Ned Kelly. Village Voice.
• Great Honorary Doctorate List, describes Yahoo Serious' honorary doctorate
• Newcastle Film Festival Media Release, mentions Yahoo Serious' next film. (October 15th, 2004)
• yahooserious.com News Page, Latest news on Yahoo Serious.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Yahoo Serious