Name Gordon Chater Role Comedian | ||
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Full Name Gordon Maitland Chater Books The Almost Late Gordon Chater Awards Gold Logie Award for Best Personality on Australian Television, Obie Award for Special Citations Nominations Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a New Play | ||
Mavis Bramston Show: Down Under Cleopatra (1965)
THE IMPORTANCE x264
Gordon Maitland Chater AM (6 April 1922 – 12 December 1999) was a Gold Logie-award-winning English Australian comedian and actor.
Contents
- Mavis Bramston Show Down Under Cleopatra 1965
- THE IMPORTANCE x264
- Career
- Stage roles in Australia
- Honours and awards
- References
Career
Chater attended Cottesmore School as a child. He attended Cambridge University to study medicine but did not finish his degree, instead taking part in many student revues.
Chater arrived in Australia following World War II. He first came to prominence in Australia as a stage and radio actor, and was a cast member of the 1963 Sydney season of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the debut production by the Old Tote Theatre Company, the precursor to the Sydney Theatre Company.
Chater became a national TV star when he was cast with Carol Raye and Barry Creyton in the Australian satirical television series The Mavis Bramston Show, for which he won the 1966 Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television. He cemented his popularity with the title role in the popular sitcom My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?, playing the elderly live-in father of a young married couple, played by John Meillon and Judi Farr. He appeared in many other television comedy series. His fellow actors included Ray Barrett, Stewart Ginn and Charles "Bud" Tingwell, among others.
Stage roles in Australia
Amongst work in many other shows, Chater appeared in:
Gordon Chater later worked in the United States, including appearing on Broadway.
In the 1970s Chater was particularly associated with the play The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin by Steve J. Spears, the stage role for which he became best known. The play broke new ground in Australian theatre with its shocking opening scene (in which Chater walked onstage naked) and its discussion of paedophilia.