Mike Dorsey was an English theatre and television actor. He rose to fame in Australia and is best known for his long-running role of Reginald "Daddy " MacDonald in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96

Number 96 (TV series)

Number 96 was a popular Australian soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block. Don Cash and Bill Harmon produced the series for Network Ten, which requested a Coronation Street-type serial, and specifically one that explored adult subjects...

.

Dorsey's acting career began in the late 1940s when he started acting with the Gate Theatre

Gate Theatre

The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...

, Dublin, in bit parts. After three years in the army in the early 1950s Dorsey returned to acting, with several minor stage roles on the UK provincial theatre

Community theatre

Community theatre refers to theatrical performance made in relation to particular communities—its usage includes theatre made by, with, and for a community...

 circuit. The scarcity of acting work led to a career change to the publicity business, and Dorsey subsequently did the publicity in London for such performers as Kenny Ball

Kenny Ball

Kenny Ball is an English jazz musician, best known as the lead trumpet player in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.-Career:...

, Acker Bilk and The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds

- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...

. He later did two tours with The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

, one of which brought him to Australia where he decided to settle in 1965.

In Australia Dorsey's career as an actor and performer quickly took off. Beginning in the mid 1960s he had several guest starring roles in Australian drama series including Riptide, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo is an Australian television series for children created by John McCallum, produced from 1966–1968, telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, in the Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales.Ninety-one 30-minute...

, and many appearances in the various Crawford Productions

Crawford Productions

Crawford Productions is an Australian television production company founded by Hector Crawford; the present incarnation of the company, Crawfords Australia, is now a subsidiary of the WIN television corporation.-History:...

 police drama series. During this period he also played the on-going role of Captain Roke in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

-Artransa Films science fiction children's series Phoenix Five

Phoenix Five

Phoenix Five is a low-budget Australian science fiction television series produced in 1970 by Artransa Park in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation....

(1970), was the straight man on Joe Martin

Joe Martin

Joe Martin may refer to:*Joe Martin , character on All My Children*Joe Martin , American football linebacker for Baltimore Ravens*Joe Martin , American cartoonist...

's show Tonight on Channel Ten, and had a brief role as a police detective in Number 96 in 1972.

Beginning in January 1974 Dorsey played the regular role of comedy character Reg "Daddy" MacDonald in Number 96. An officious bureaucrat with the local council, buttoned-down Reg lived a regimented life and liked to speak in acronyms as a sort of verbal shorthand. He would frequently register his indignation with signature phrase "Great Scott!" Along with wife Edie – otherwise known as "Mother" or "Mummy" – (Wendy Blacklock

Wendy Blacklock

Wendy Blacklock was an Australia-based theatre and television actor best known for her long-running role of Edith "Mummy" MacDonald in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96....

) and daughter Marilyn (Frances Hargreaves

Frances Hargreaves

Frances Hargreaves born 1954, a South-African-born actor who became famous in Australia in the 1970s through her long running role of Marilyn McDonald in soap opera Number 96....

) the character became a hit with viewers.

In late 1976 there were plans to spinoff the characters of Mummy and Daddy into a new situation comedy series titled Mummy and Me and starring Dorsey and Blacklock, but the proposed series was not picked up by the network and the characters remained in Number 96. Dorsey and Blacklock played in Number 96 continuously until it ended in August 1977, surviving several drastic cast purges during the show's closing months.

After the series ended, Dorsey, like many of his former Number 96 co-stars, had a guest starring role in school-based drama Glenview High

Glenview High

Glenview High is an Australian television drama series produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Seven Network between 1977 and 1978.-Story:...

(1977). In the late 1970s Dorsey and his main Number 96 co-star Wendy Blacklock created a stage show based on their Number 96 characters which toured clubs in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 over a period of nearly two years. In 1978–1979 Dorsey played an on-going role on hospital-based soap opera The Young Doctors

The Young Doctors

The Young Doctors is an Australian early evening soap opera. The series was set in the fictional Albert Memorial hospital and primarily concerned with romances between younger members of the hospital staff, screened on the Nine Network from Monday, 8 November 1976 until Wednesday, 30 March...

. He then took the regular role of Vic Marshall in Network Ten daily soap opera Arcade

Arcade (TV series)

Arcade is an Australian television soap opera shown in 1980 that became one of the biggest flops in the history of Australian television. It aired on Network Ten with the premiere episode shown on Sunday, 20 January 1980. The series then ran five nights a week, Mondays to Fridays, as a 30 minute...

(1980), a notorious critical and popular failure cancelled after being on air only six weeks. Dorsey subsequently ran a theatrical group.

Today he is retired and living in Rockingham

Rockingham, Western Australia

Rockingham is a suburb and primary centre in Western Australia south-west of the Perth city centre and south of Fremantle. It has a beachside location at Mangles Bay, the southern extremity of Cockburn Sound. To its north stretches the maritime and resource-industry installations of Kwinana and...

, Western Australia but is still in demand as a voice-over artist and actor.

External links