Vale David Dalaithngu: the inimitable actor who changed the movies, and changed us

The star has left behind a profound body of work - and a permanent, inimitable impression on his industry

In the 1976 classic Storm Boy, the great Yolu actor David Dalaithngu delivers a line that became immortalised in Australian cinema. Bird like him, never die," he says, describing the pelican Mr Percival.

The substance of that line can apply to the man himself, who will live on through the light and shadow of the cinema, on to which he left a permanent and inimitable impression.