Mike Dorsey (born 1930 in
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
theatre and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
actor. He rose to fame in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and is best known for his long-running role of Reg MacDonald in the 1970s television
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
Number 96Number 96 was a revolutionary 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 TheatreThe Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
,
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
, 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* Regional theater in the United States...
circuit.
Mike Dorsey (born 1930 in
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
theatre and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
actor. He rose to fame in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and is best known for his long-running role of Reg MacDonald in the 1970s television
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
Number 96Number 96 was a revolutionary 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 TheatreThe Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammoir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
,
DublinDublin is the largest city and capital of Ireland. It is officially known in Irish as Baile Átha Cliath or Áth Cliath ; the English name comes from the Irish Dubh Linn meaning "black pool". It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the...
, 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* Regional theater in the United States...
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 BallKenny Ball is a British jazz musician, best known as the lead trumpet player in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.-Career:...
,
Acker BilkAcker Bilk MBE , born Bernard Stanley Bilk , is a clarinetist. He is known for his trademark goatee, bowler hat, striped waistcoat and his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register clarinet style. He was born in Pensford, Somerset, England.Bilk earned the nickname Acker from the Somerset slang for...
and
The YardbirdsThe Yardbirds are an English rock band, notable for starting the careers of three of rock's more famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, all of whom were in the top fifteen of Rolling Stones' 100 Top Guitarists list...
. He later did two tours with
The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962 in London when multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were joined by vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early lineup...
, one of which brought him to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
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 KangarooSkippy the Bush Kangaroo was a popular Australian television series for children produced from 1966 to 1968, telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, in the Waratah National Park, near Sydney, New South Wales....
, and many appearances in the various
Crawford ProductionsCrawford Productions is an Australian television production company founded by Sir Hector Crawford, and now owned by the WIN Corporation.The company, which began with radio shows, generally had a reputation for higher quality productions than its nearest rival, the Reg Grundy Organisation.During...
police drama series. During this period he also played the on-going role of Captain Roke in the
Australian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC", is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of AUD$1.13 Billion annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as...
-Artransa Films science fiction children's series
Phoenix FivePhoenix 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 MartinJoe Martin is the name of:*Fiddlin' Joe Martin , American blues musician who played mandolin*Joe Martin , fictional character on the American soap opera All My Children...
'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 BlacklockWendy Blacklock was an Australia-based theatre and television actor best known for her long-running role of Edie MacDonald in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96....
) and daughter Marilyn (
Frances HargreavesFrances Hargreaves was 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
spinoffMedia spin-off is the process of deriving new radio programs, television programs or video games or even novels from already existing ones. Spin-offs work with varying degrees of success...
the characters of Mummy and Daddy into a new
situation comedyA situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television as one of its dominant narrative forms...
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 HighGlenview High is an Australian television drama series produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Seven Network between 1977 and 1978....
(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 WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
over a period of nearly two years. In 1978-1979 Dorsey played an on-going role on hospital-based soap opera
The Young DoctorsThe 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. The series was particularly popular with women and teenage fans...
. He then took the regular role of Vic Marshall in Network Ten daily soap opera
ArcadeArcade 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 first episode shown on January 20 1980....
(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
RockinghamRockingham is a suburb and regional 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,...
,
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
but is still in demand as a voice-over artist and actor.