Steve “Crusher” Rackman is a genuine icon of the Australian wrestling scene, and his craggy face and hulking physique is well known to millions of film fans around the world via his appearances as “Donk” in the “Crocodile Dundee” series of films. Born in the UK, young Steve lifted weights, boxed and worked the door at many rough bars before getting involved in professional wrestling.
Rackman migrated to Australia and became a favorite “villain” on the high rating “World Championship Wrestling” telecast on the Channel Nine Network in the early 1970s, and fought alongside other crowd favorites including Larry O’Dea, Mario Milano, Bulldog Brower, King Kurtis and Cyclone Negro. Rackman even fought the legendary André the Giant in front of 10,000 howling fans at Melbourne’s legendary Festival Hall.
Not long after the demise of “World Championship Wrestling”, Rackman first appeared on screen as the intimidating German miner “Carl” keen to punch on with rigging boss Gerard Kennedy in The Last of the Knucklemen (1979). This was followed by roles in Turkey Shoot (1982), in which Steve plays some sort of humanoid wolf who hunts down escaped prisoners before lunching on them, then in the film At Last… Bullamakanka: The Motion Picture (1983). Rackman put in a great character performance as bar tough guy “Donk” in the mega hit Crocodile Dundee (1986), and also appeared in the sequels Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001).
In total Steve has appeared in over 40 feature films and dozens of TV commercials, and these days is in semi-retirement and running his gym at Coogee in Sydney, Australia.
