Ian Rawlings

Rawlings was born on 9 March 1959,^[1] in Whyalla, South Australia.^[2] He has four brothers and a sister.^[2] Rawlings played Australian rules football for Whyalla in the South Australian northern league.^[2] He developed a keen interest in betting on horse racing after his father and grandfather took him to the races in Adelaide when he was eight years old.^[3] He also developed an interest in greyhound racing when he was 14, and went onto own and train a number of dogs along with his siblings.^[2] He was only interested in racing and training the dogs and not the gambling side of the sport.^[2]

Rawlings worked as a storeman in Adelaide for a computer company, before becoming a model when he was 18.^[4] He also worked loading trucks at a large freight company,^[3] and as a tow-truck driver.^[5]

Rawlings had little acting experience when he signed for the Grundy Organisation in 1981 to play Wayne Hamilton in Sons and Daughters.^[6] He had spent two years trying to secure substantial acting work, and appeared in several amateur productions and as an extra in films produced by the South Australian Film Corporation.^[5] He was initially contracted for 15 weeks.^[6] In 1985, Rawlings also portrayed his character's look-alike Gary Evans.^[6] That same year, he won the Logie Award for Best Supporting Actor in A Series.^[6] Rawlings continued in the role of Wayne for the show's entire 1982–1987 run.^[7] Ahead of production ending in March 1987, Rawlings formed his own production company, after completing a producers course at the Australian Film and Television School.^[8]

In 1989, Rawlings appeared in the short-lived Seven Network soap opera The Power, The Passion as Ryan McAllister.^[3] After The Power, The Passion was cancelled, Rawlings took on a job as a salesman at the freight company he previously worked for prior to his acting career taking off.^[3] He said it was a "natural place to go back to" with no acting work forthcoming. He found that being well known to the public helped him with sales.^[3]

In 1992, Rawlings had a guest role as Marcus Stone in the Network Ten soap opera Neighbours.^[9] A few months later, he joined the main cast as Philip Martin, taking over the role from Christopher Milne.^[3] Rawlings played Philip until 1999.^[10] He briefly reprised this role in episodes commemorating the programme's 20th anniversary in 2005.^[11] Rawlings reprised the role for the Neighbours vs Time Travel webseries in 2017.^[12] Rawlings made a cameo appearance in the final episode of Neighbours in mid-2022,^[13] and again in late 2023, when the series was picked up once again.^[14]

Rawlings struggled to find work after leaving Neighbours, and launched his own entertainment business Trivial Fun and Games for clubs and hotels.^[15] He made guest appearances in Stingers and MDA in 2003.^[15] In 2019, Rawlings was working as a bingo caller at the Werribee Rotary Club.^[16]

Rawlings met his wife, model Lee Dowling, while he was performing at an opening ceremony for a chicken takeaway shop.^[3] He proposed after six weeks,^[3] and they married four months later in September 1984 on the Isle of Capri. Several of his Sons and Daughters co-stars were in attendance, along with his brother and Dowling's daughter from her marriage to Garry Dowling.^[17] Rawlings and Dowling also have one child together, a daughter.^[15]