| Garry McDonald | |
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| Born | Garry George McDonald 30 October 1948  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Spouse(s) | Diane Craig |
Garry George McDonald AO (born 30 October 1948) is an Australian stage and screen actor. Events 637 - Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Sydney (ˈsɪdniː is the most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 4 For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Diane Mary Craig (born 9 June, 1949) is an Actress born in County Down, Northern Ireland but who is best known for her performances Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia on 14 February 1975 "for the purpose of according recognition Events 637 - Antioch surrenders to the Muslim forces under Rashidun Caliphate after the Battle of Iron bridge. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.
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Biography
Early life
McDonald was born in Sydney, New South Wales and was educated at Cranbrook School and NIDA. Sydney (ˈsɪdniː is the most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 4 Cranbrook School is an independent, Anglican, day and Boarding school for boys located in Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay The National Institute of Dramatic Art ( NIDA) is an Australian national training institute for students of Theatre, Film, and Television
Early career
McDonald first came to wide public attention playing the supporting character "Kid Eager" in the second series of the groundbreaking Australian television comedy series The Aunty Jack Show in 1973. The Aunty Jack Show was a Logie -award winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. It was while working on Aunty Jack that McDonald first performed the character for which he would become best-known, the gauche and inept local regional TV personality, Norman Gunston. Norman Gunston was a Satirical TV character performed by Australian actor Garry McDonald. Gunston's first appearance was in a series of brief sketches written by Wendy Skelcher which saw him reporting uncomfortably on a "sex-scandal drought" in his home town, the New South Wales city of Wollongong; a drought he eventually breaks by appearing nude on camera.
After Aunty Jack, McDonald went on to work with the same team in the comedy miniseries Wollongong The Brave (1973) and Flash Nick from Jindivik (1974). The Gunston character was revived for one episode of Wollongong The Brave, a parodic show business biography entitled "Norman Gunston: The Golden Weeks". Around the time of his major breakthrough on Australian TV in 1975, McDonald also made his first major film appearance, playing a minor role in the landmark Peter Weir film Picnic at Hanging Rock. Peter Lindsay Weir AM (born 21 August 1944 is an Australian Film director. Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian Mystery Film directed by Peter Weir, adapted from the novel of the same name.
Norman Gunston Show
In 1975, McDonald revived the Gunston character for TV with the help of a writing team that included Morris Gleitzman (now a successful children's author) and veteran TV comedy writer Bill Harding, who had written for the pioneering Australian TV satire The Mavis Bramston Show. } Morris Gleitzman (born January 10 1953) is an Australian Writer. The Mavis Bramston Show was a popular Satirical Sketch comedy TV series broadcast on Australian television.
The new series, The Norman Gunston Show, was a parody of the Tonight Show format, and McDonald himself has stated that it was originally based on a mediocre late-night chat show hosted by expatriate American entertainer Tommy Leonetti. Norman Gunston was a Satirical TV character performed by Australian actor Garry McDonald. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as appropriate --> The Tonight Show is a long-running Tommy Leonetti (born Nicola Tomaso Leonetti 10 September 1929, Bergen County, New Jersey, U The series saw Gunston as the unlikely host of his own national TV variety show. After a slow start, the series rapidly gained a sizeable audience by word of mouth, and by 1976 it was a major hit, with McDonald winning the coveted Gold Logie Award that year, becoming the only winner in Logies history to win the award in the name of the character he played. The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards which have been presented annually since 1959
The series, which satirised many aspects of Australian culture and show business, was a mixture of live and pre-recorded interviews, awkward musical segments -- excruciatingly sung by Gunston himself in the broadest 'strine' accent -- and continuing comedy sketches such as "Norman's Dreamtime" (in which Norman read stories to a group of children, such as "Why Underpants Ride Up") and the TV soap-opera parody "Checkout Chicks", which featured actress Anne-Louise Lambert (who starred as Miranda in Picnic at Hanging Rock). Strine was a term coined in 1964 and subsequently used to describe a joke or made-up "language" purportedly spoken by Australians. The traditions and lore of Australia's indigenous peoples belongs to what may be the oldest continuous culture on Earth (circa 50000 years Anne Louise Lambert (born 21 August 1955 is an Australian Actress.
Using Gunston's gormless personality as a cover to break down the defences of his "victims", McDonald pioneered the satirically provocative "ambush interview" technique, which was used to great effect in legendary interviews with Paul McCartney, Muhammad Ali, Keith Moon and actress Sally Struthers. Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June 1942 is an English rock Singer, Bass guitarist songwriter Composer, Biography Early life Cassius Clay Jr was born on January 17 1942 Keith John Moon ( August 23, 1946 &ndash September 7, 1978) was the Drummer of the rock group The Who. Sally-Ann Struthers (born July 28, 1948) is a two-time Emmy-winning American actress and Spokesperson, known for her roles in Sitcoms
As Norman Gunston, McDonald also had a surprisingly successful recording career, releasing a string of satirical novelty pop records that anticipated the pop parodies of Weird Al Yankovic. Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (ˈjæŋkəvɪk born October 23 1959 is a Grammy Award winning American singer Musician, actor satirist Norman's Top 40 chart hits included his interpretation of the Tom Jones classic "Delilah", the punk rock send-up "I Might Be A Punk But I Love You, Baby" and "We're All Marching In The KISS Army", a parody of the KISS single "I Was Made For Loving You". Sir Thomas John Woodward, (born 7 June 1940 known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh pop music singer particularly noted for his powerful voice Kiss (also typeset as KISS) is an American rock band formed in New York City in December 1972
Edited versions of the Norman Gunston shows were screened in the UK in the late 1970s and it is arguable that McDonald's pioneering work was a direct influence on the later British comedy characters Dennis Pennis, Alan Partridge and Ali G. For the Continuity Announcer of the same name see Paul Kaye (broadcaster Paul Kaye (born 1965 is an English Comedian Alan Gordon Partridge is a fictional Television and Radio Presenter portrayed by English Comedian Steve Coogan. Ali G ( AKA Ali stair Leslie G raham was a satirical Fictional character invented and played by English Comedian In the late 1990s, Canadian actor Martin Short also created a distinctly Gunston-esque talk-show host, Jiminy Glick and one of the sketches in that show, "La-la-wood Tales", is a direct copy of the "Norman's Dreamtime" sketch, featuring Glick reading a satirical fable about Hollywood to a group of children. Martin Hayter Short, CM (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian Comedian, Actor, writer, Singer and Jiminy Glick is a Fictional character portrayed by Martin Short in the Emmy-nominated TV series Primetime Glick (2001-2003 the subsequent film
Mother and Son
Although he inevitably suffered from typecasting as Gunston, McDonald was able to create another memorable character in the successful ABC television series Mother and Son written by Geoffrey Atherden. Mother and Son was an Australian Television Sitcom produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1984 until 1994 Geoffrey Atherden is an Australian television writer best known for the sitcom Mother and Son. It was loosely based on the cult Carl Reiner comedy feature Where's Poppa?. Carl Reiner (born March 20, 1922) is an American Actor, Film director, producer, Writer and Comedian Where's Poppa is a 1970 Black comedy film based on the novel by Robert Klane starring George Segal, Ron Leibman and Ruth Gordon The series was very successful in Australia. It was repeated many times and has become one of the best-loved Australian TV comedies of its time. It starred veteran actress Ruth Cracknell as Maggie Beare, a senile dotty pensioner. Ruth Cracknell, AM ( 6 July 1925 – 13 May 2002) was an Australian Theatre and Television character McDonald played her long-suffering younger son Arthur Beare whose life is dominated by his obligation to care for her.
Other projects
McDonald has also appeared on stage at Sydney's Her Majesty's Theatre and at Nimrod Theatres in many dramatic and musical productions. The Nimrod Theatre Company, in Nimrod Street Kings Cross Sydney, Australia, was founded by in 1970 by John Bell, Richard Wherrett
Garry was also the host of a sales video series for the now renamed Telecom Australia, promoting the ease-of-use and corporate usefulness of the Telememo communication network. Telstra or Telstra Corporation (often abbreviated as Telstra Corp) () is an Australian Telecommunications and media company formerly
After Mother and Son, McDonald fought a public battle with depression which reached crisis point after an abortive attempt to revive the Gunston character for a commercial TV series in 1993. Major depressive disorder, also known as major depression, unipolar depression, unipolar disorder, clinical depression, or simply depression He is a member of the Board of beyondblue, an Australian national depression initiative. beyondblue is an Australian Non-profit organisation which aims to increase awareness and improve the treatment of depression, Bipolar disorder For his work in this area in addition to his services in the entertainment industry, McDonald was awarded by becoming an Officer of the Order of Australia. Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia on 14 February 1975 "for the purpose of according recognition [1]
Two portraits of Garry McDonald have won awards at the Archibald Prize. The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important Portraiture prize and is the most prominent of all arts prizes in Australia. In 1999, a portrait of Garry McDonald by artist Deny Christian won the Packing Room award, and in 2006, Paul Jackson's 'All the world's a stage' won the Peoples Choice award.
In 2005 McDonald filmed a Tele Series called "Step Father of The Bride" for ABC Australian Television. In 2006, he made an appearance on Channel 9's mystery show "Two Twisted".
On April 5, 2008, he began his role of Nathan Detroit in the major stage production Guys & Dolls, currently playing at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne.
References
- ^ Garry McDonald AO. Australian Honours Database. Retrieved on 2007-11-14. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1533 - Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca, Inca
External links
- 2004 interview with Andrew Denton
- 2002 interview for Australian Story
- Garry McDonald at the Internet Movie Database
- Garry McDonald at the National Film and Sound Archive
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | McDonald, Garry George |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Australian actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 30 October 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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