Gordon McDougall

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For the British theatre director, see Gordon McDougall (Theatre Director & Academic)

Gordon McDougall as Les in Number 96

Gordon McDougall (born Glasgow, Scotland) was an Australian-based theatre and television actor.

McDougall trained in Glasgow at the Athenaeum Drama School and began acting in 1936, working in various facets of the entertainment industry. He emigrated to Australia and over a long career on the stage appeared in over fifty theatre productions. These included Death of a Salesman, Cat Among the Pigeons, Habeas Corpus, 1776 and Promises, Promises. He played in Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing for the Nimrod Theatre ^[1].

In the 1970s McDougall began appearing in Australian television drama series and comedies. He subsequently found his widest audiences through his portrayal of amateur inventor Les Whittaker, husband to brassy barmaid Norma (Sheila Kennelly), in the phenomenally successful sex-comedy television soap opera Number 96. Les and Norma were added to the series early in its 1972-1977 run and became enormously popular. After a fall in ratings in 1975 Les was killed-off as part of a dramatic revamp of the series. It was at the time decided that his constant crazy inventions were becoming too silly and his death would open up the character of Norma to engage in new romances and other storylines. The producers of the series soon realised that killing Les was a mistake, and McDougall was later returned to the series in late 1976 playing Les's long-lost brother Andrew. The new character did not work and six months later, during another drastic revamp of the show, both Andrew and Norma were written-out of the series.

After Number 96 McDougall continued acting in Australian films and television dramas including guest spots in soap opera Prisoner and comedy series Mother and Son.