California<\/a>, Bill was a surfer in his youth, and later trained as a filmmaker in London, and entered the film industry there in the 1970s.<\/p>\n ![\"US-born](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101077729-14986959-US_born_filmmaker_Bill_Leimbach_pictured_who_emigrated_to_Austra-a-1_175481808225.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
US-born filmmaker Bill Leimbach (pictured), who emigrated to Australia 47 years ago, has died<\/p>\n
![\"His](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101077707-14986959-_Not_many_people_can_say_they_had_a_dad_like_Bill_his_sons_share-a-1_175481402730.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
His sons, Louis Leimbach, 35 and Oliver Leimbach, 37, of the Aussie band Lime Cordiale, took to Facebook to announce the sad news on Saturday. Pictured: Oliver and his brother Louis Leimbach in 2021<\/p>\n
He worked for the BBC and the British Film Institute, where he met visiting Australian filmmakers like Peter Weir (The Last Wave), Bruce Beresford (Breaker Morant) and Phil Noyce (Dead Calm).<\/p>\n
Deciding he ‘loved’ Australians and impressed by the new films being made Down Under in the 1970s like Picnic at Hanging Rock, Bill moved to Sydney in 1978.<\/p>\n
Bill also won acclaim for his camera work on the French-produced Oscar-nominated documentary Raoni (1978).\u00a0<\/p>\n
His first major film was a documentary about Indigenous film star David Gulpilil, Walkabout to Hollywood (1980).<\/p>\n
He later made the popular travel series Outback Adventures (1998-1999) and the acclaimed history documentary, Gallipoli: The Unknown Stories (2005).<\/p>\n
In a career spanning over five decades, Bill also made films for National Geographic, PBS, SBS, the ABC and the BBC.<\/p>\n
He also worked for the Nine, Seven and Channel 10 networks.<\/p>\n
‘Not many people can say they had a dad like Bill,’ his sons shared on their father’s own Facebook page.<\/p>\n
![\"Best](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101077709-14986959-image-a-2_1754812799093.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Best known for his documentaries, Bill worked on the much-loved Channel Seven series The World Around Us (1979-2000) with famed British natural historian Sir David Attenborough\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"His](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101077723-14986959-image-a-4_1754812825494.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
His first major film was a documentary about Indigenous film star David Gulpilil, Walkabout to Hollywood (1980). Pictured: Bill pictured with Gulpilil<\/p>\n
‘He was a filmmaker, a grandpa, a husband, a Yank-turned-Aussie, and a huge presence.’<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in their tribute, the Leimbach brothers shared little-known family history.<\/p>\n
‘By the time the hippie movement was in full swing, Dad was into photography and had started travelling,’ they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘When he was conscripted to fight in Vietnam, he fled to South America. Eventually, they caught him – so he faked insanity and was institutionalised. The plan worked, but after they let him out, he left the States for good,’ they wrote.<\/p>\n
His sons also shared intimate details about their relationship with their father.<\/p>\n
‘He pushed us sons hard – but almost in the same breath, he’d tell us to take a f***ing break,’ they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘He knew how to turn a holiday into a tax deduction.<\/p>\n
‘Dad never grew up. He was a cheeky bugger with an infectious giggle, always trying to shock you with something inappropriate. It’s a lesson for all of us. Be carefree and don’t take life too seriously because one day you’ll be dead.<\/p>\n
‘You’d hardly ever see Dad without our merch on.<\/p>\n
‘He was our best mate, and we were always trying to impress him. We’ll miss you, Dad.’<\/p>\n
They concluded: ‘Written by his sons, but sending love from the whole family.’<\/p>\n
Bill shares two daughters, Carli and Tania, with his first wife.<\/p>\n
After separating, he met his second wife, Karen, a music teacher, with whom he shares sons Oliver and Louis, who formed Lime Cordiale in 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US-born filmmaker Bill Leimbach, who emigrated to Australia 47 years ago, has died. His sons, Louis Leimbach, 35…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[186,192,4080,92,77,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-333457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-tvshowbiz","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115005181921820011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}