Soap Star's Reinvention
(The Daily Telegraph, March '03)
from sydney confidential
march 26, 2003
kylie, jason, craig, natalie, delta and holly. now to that ever-growing list of soap stars turned pop stars we can add the name charlton – or perhaps that should be andrew.
charlton "the actor formerly known as andrew" hill was a one-time summer bay resident, playing the role of haydn ross in home and away for three years.
but, for some reason, the boy from sydney's northern beaches has chosen not to discuss his early foray into the fame game.
surely the 25-year-old is not worried that his singer/songwriter street cred might suffer if his audience discovers his past life as teen hunkster.
not only is hill coy about his job on the channel 7 series from 1991-94 (with a brief return in 1996), so too is management company monsoon music and record label sony.
"we don't really use that as a point of interest," his manager at monsoon music said.
"that was something he did a long time ago.
"he's not hiding from it but it's something that he doesn't want to use as part of his career building. he wanted to start from scratch as a recording artist."
his biography on sony's website mentions his love of surfing and his trips as a youth up the coast playing his hand-me-down guitar around the campfire, but nothing about acting.
and not all of his roles are ancient history. in 1999 he was in a pretty ordinary australian movie joe wilkinson and his other gigs include an episode of water rats in 1996.
as for the change to his moniker, charlton is apparently andrew's middle name.
one former home and away tragic told confidential she knew charlton was andrew as she'd had a crush on him and distinctly remembered asking for his autograph at warriewood mcdonald's many moons ago.
"i would think it would be an honour to be the first male soapie star to head to the stage since craig [mclachlan] and jason donovan . . . then again, i guess he's afraid of following that particular path. after their track record . . . understandable."