Gordon Chater
AM
Gordon Chater appearing in The Mavis Bramston Show
Born
Gordon Maitland Chater

(1922-04-06)6 April 1922
North Kensington, West London, England, United Kingdom
Died12 December 1999(1999-12-12) (aged 77)
Southport, Queensland, Australia
EducationUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationsActor, comedian
Years active1944−1993
Known forThe Mavis Bramston Show, My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?

Gordon Maitland Chater AM (6 April 1922 – 12 December 1999) was an English Australian comedian and actor, and recipient of the Gold Logie, he appeared in revue, theatre, radio, television and film, with a career spanning almost 50 years.[1]

Biography

Early life and career

Chater was born in North Kensington, London, Middlesex to Maitland Charter, a chartered accountant and Evelyn Eleanor Riach,[2] and attended Cottesmore School. His mother had been born in Shanghai.[3] He attended Cambridge University to study medicine but did not finish his degree.[4] He did, however, take part in many student revues.

Arriving in Australia after World War II, Chater came to prominence as a stage and radio actor. He appeared in numerous radio shows and series, including Looking at Life (1951), a comedy series which dramatised everyday events and in which he starred alongside Gwen Plumb, Queenie Ashton and Ruth Cracknell.[5] He was also cast in serious theatrical roles; including Yepikhodov in the 1963 Sydney season of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard alongside Owen Weingott and Ron Haddrick. This critically lauded production was the debut of the Old Tote Theatre Company, the precursor to the Sydney Theatre Company.[6] Within a few months of The Cherry Orchard he was once again performing original satirical comedy, such as the Phillip Street Theatre revues Do You Mind! with Jill Perryman, Judi Farr and Robina Beard.[7]

Screen and television roles

Chater appeared in TV movies and series. He became a national star when he was cast with Carol Raye and Barry Creyton in the Australian satirical television series The Mavis Bramston Show,[8] 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?,[8] 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, including Snake Gully with Dad 'n' Dave (1972) with Garry McDonald, Marion Edward and Diane Craig[9] and Mac and Merle (1973), which reunited him with Gwen Plumb.[10]

Chater was critical of early Australian television direction which he characterised as too often "'feet, knees and in the distance pictures'. People watching TV are interested in people and close ups in Australia were hard to come by in the early days of Australian television."[11]

Theatre roles

Amongst work in many other shows, Chater appeared in The Rocky Horror Show in Brisbane in 1988,[12] the Sydney Theatre Company production of The Importance of Being Earnest as both "Lane" and "Merriman" in 1990,[12] and Lady Bracknell's Confinement at the Playhouse, in Melbourne in 1993.[12]

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.[8]

Radio

Chater also had a radio show on 2GB, in Sydney, opposite Gwen Plumb.[13] In 1955 & 1956, he worked on the highly successful drama White Coolies, which was based on the diary of Sister Betty Jeffrey, written while she and other Australian nurses were held in a Japanese prison camp in World War Two. The series of more than 50 episodes, has been released for sale and download, by Grace Gibson Productions.

Death

Chater died on 12 December 1999, aged 77 from heart disease in Southport, Queensland.[2]

Honours and awards

Filmography

Film

Year Production Role Type
1958 Smiley Gets a Gun Rev. Galbraith Feature film
1963 My Three Angels Convict TV movie
1976 Me and Mr Thorne Reginald Thorne TV movie
1992 The Importance of Being Ernest Lane, Merriman TV movie
1993 This Won't Hurt a Bit Dental Professor Feature film

Television

Year Production Role Type
1954 The Adventures of Long John Silver Alfredo TV series
1958/59 ITV Television Playhouse Reverend Michael Brute / Victor Prine TV series, 2 episodes: Various Heavens, Private Lives
1959 Armchair Theatre TV series, Episode: To Ride A Tiger
1958/61 ITV Play of the Week Henry Straker / Mr Bullivant TV series, 2 episodes: Man and Superman, Break from Cover
1961 The Story of Peter Grey TV series
1964 The Mavis Bramston Show Various Characters TV series
1966-68 My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? Dominic McGooley TV series, 88 episodes
1968 Rita and Wally McGooley TV series
1968 The Gordon Chater Show Host TV series
1971 The Godfathers Jamieson TV series
1972 Snake Gully with Dad and Dave Dad Rudd TV series
1974 Behind the Legend Thomas Mitchell TV series, Episode: Thomas Mitchell
Mac and Merle John "Mac" McInern TV series
1975 The Dave Allen Show in Australia Various TV series
1975 Celebrity Squares Himself TV series, 2 episodes
1976 This Is Your Life Himself TV series
1976 Matlock Police Doc. Horton TV series
1980 Broadway on Showtime Dr. Cedric Seward TV series
1981 Parkinson in Australia Guest TV series

Theatre

Year Production Role Venue / Theatre Co.
1963 The Cherry Orchard Old Tote Theatre
1970s The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin
1988 The Rocky Horror Show Brisbane
1990 The Importance of Being Earnest Lane / Merriman Sydney Theatre Company
1993 Confinement Playhouse, Melbourne

References

  1. ^ Lane, Richard (2000). The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama Volume 2. National Film and Sound Archive. pp. 111–115.
  2. ^ a b Arrow, Michelle. "Gordon Maitland Chater (1922—1999)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 24 November 2025.
  3. ^ Chater, Gordon (1996). The Almost Late Gordon Chater. Bantam Books. ISBN 9781863597975.
  4. ^ Arrow, Michelle, "Gordon Maitland Chater (1922–1999)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 8 December 2025
  5. ^ 'Everyday events in KZ comedy', Melbourne Age 'Radio Supplement' 5 July 1951 p. 1
  6. ^ 'R. C.', '"Cherry Orchard" at the Old Tote', Sydney Morning Herald 4 February 1963 p. 5
  7. ^ 'Amusements' Sydney Morning Herald 20 April 1963 p. 20
  8. ^ a b c McDonald, Philippa (13 December 1999). "7:30 Report:Gordon Chater dies aged 77". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 February 2009.
  9. ^ Valda Marshall, 'It's a Happening World' Sydney Sun-Herald 28 November 1971 p. 152
  10. ^ 'After Florence Nightingale and Adolf... Mac and Merle', Sydney Morning Herald 10 December 1973 p. 22
  11. ^ Chater, Gordon (1996). The Almost Late Gordon Chater. Bantam. p. 117.
  12. ^ a b c "Contributor Identifier: 225086 Contributor Name:Gordon Chater". ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 8 February 2009.
  13. ^ Pearce, John (1993). "Chapter 23: "OFF THE CUFF", PUSSY AND CHARLIE". For the Love of Mike.
  14. ^ It's an Honour. Retrieved 22 May 2015