Gordon McDougall

Theatre and radio

McDougall started acting professionally in 1936 working in various facets of the entertainment industry, including radio and stage. He emigrated to Australia and started his career on stage over all-in a long career he appeared in more than 50 theatre productions.

These theatre roles included Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Cat Among the Pigeons, Habeas Corpus, musicals 1776 and Promises, Promises. He played in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing for the Nimrod Theatre.^[2]

Television

McDougall appeared in the ABC adaptation of Hesba Fay Brinsmead's Pastures of the Blue Crane in 1969.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s he had guest roles in Crawford Productions police procedurals Homicide and Division 4 and a regular role in 1972 comedy series A Nice Day at the Office which ran for seven episodes.

McDougall found his widest audience through his role of amateur inventor and hospital orderly Les Whittaker, husband to brassy barmaid Norma (Sheila Kennelly), in hit soap opera Number 96. Comedy characters Les and Norma joined the series early in its 1972–77 run and became very popular and along with most of the show's regular cast, McDougall reprised his role in the 1974 film version of the series.

After a fall in ratings in 1975 Les was killed off in a dramatic revamp of the series: the famous bomb storyline. It had been decided that Les's constant crazy inventions were becoming too silly, and that his death would open up the character of Norma to new romances and other storyline's. The Number 96 producers soon realized that killing Les off was a mistake, among protest from viewers and McDougall was returned to the series in late 1976 as Les's long-lost brother, the aristocratic Lord Andrew McCraddenow. The new character did not work as well as Les had, and six months later both Andrew and Norma were written out of the series during another cast revamp.

post-96 McDougall appeared in a small role in the film The Fourth Wish starring John Meillon and thriller The Killing of Angel Street and acted in other Australian television films and had guest roles in such drama television series as Chopper Squad, Prisoner and A Country Practice, and a guest part in sitcom Mother and Son.

Film

Television