Maxwell Phillip Cullen^[1] (born 29 April 1940) is an Australian stage and screen actor. He has appeared in many Australian films and television series but is best known for his role in the film Spider and Rose and the television series The Flying Doctors, Secret Valley and Love My Way.

Cullen was born on 29 April 1940, in Wellington, New South Wales, to Alec Cullen, an electrical linesman and Lila Mary (nee Yale), when he was one year old his family moved to Lawson in the Blue Mountains. His younger brother Fred Cullen was also an actor better known professionally as Cul Cullen (1934-1982)^[1]

Cullen began his career as a painter and sculptor after training at Sydney's National Art School in 1956 and later studied at the Julian Ashton Art School with Brett Whiteley in 1959. His works have been exhibited regularly in solo and in group exhibitions and he has worked as an illustrator, cartoonist and layout artist on several magazines and newspapers.^[2]

After seeing a play, he became interested in the acting profession and spent his formative years training under Hayes Gordon at the Ensemble Theatre, where he would subsequently appear in productions over a ten-year period, he also worked at the then newly established Nimrod Theatre.^[1]

Cullen was a regular arts reporter on the Sunday current affairs television program. He has also worked as a professional and motivational speaker.

Since 2007, Cullen has performed Lawson, a one-man show based on the life of Australian poet Henry Lawson.^[3][4]

Cullen had a role in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, alongside fellow Australian actors Hugh Jackman and Asher Keddie. He played "Owl Eyes" in the 2013 film, The Great Gatsby.

Cullen been married three times and has two daughters, one from each of his first two marriages. Married to actress Colleen Fitzpatrick from 1973–1987, they have one daughter, actress Katharine Cullen, born 9 June 1975, and one grandson William Richards, born 17 August 2013.