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Hugh Sheridan wasn’t in a rush to get his licence the moment he turned 18, but it was a debut role on the TV show Packed to the Rafters playing Ben Rafter – who was required to drive in the first episode – that prompted the then emerging star to get behind the wheel.
“I think I got my Ls and Ps all in the same day,” says Sheridan.
“There was no way around being on set with a character behind the wheel until I could drive, so I did it all very quickly and had to find myself a car to get me to and from the set as well.”
These days Sheridan calls New York home, but he will return to Australia for a hometown season as part of the Adelaide Fringe with a new show California Crooners Club.
The Adelaide-born actor moved to Melbourne at the age of 16 to join the Australian Ballet School, then relocated to Sydney for TV work.
He purchased the car after seeing a newspaper advertisement and treasured the gold Mercedes-Benz – which he thinks was a 280 sedan – keeping it for several years until he moved to the USA in 2013. He drove it on long road trips from Sydney to Adelaide on a few occasions.
“I could do the basics on the car when it came to maintenance, like change the oil, but learned early on to avoid taking it for repairs at a Mercedes dealer because they’d charge a fortune for it,” he laughs.
Sheridan also recalls a very snazzy first aid kit fitted inside the car boot.
“The car felt like a good-condition time capsule,” he says.
“A very elegant set of wheels that people noticed as I drove by. I loved it.”
He wasn’t happy to part ways with Goldie when the time came to try his luck in acting abroad.
“When I got to LA, I bought myself a Jeep but still missed having the character of the old Mercedes – nothing really compared to it. A few years later, I had some friends of mine use the Jeep to drive around in Los Angeles and they totalled it – after that, the car was a complete write-off.”
Jane Rocca is a Melbourne journalist and author who writes for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s Sunday Life Magazine, columnist The Dish at Good Food, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, ABC Arts. She has written four books and hosted a podcast series Some of My Best Work with Mushroom.
