Mike Dorsey

Mike Dorsey (1930 – 24 October 2014) was an English-born Australian theatre and television actor. He was best known for his 1970s television soap opera roles of Reginald "Daddy" MacDonald in Number 96, and Sir Clifford Langley in The Young Doctors

Dorsey was born in Yorkshire, England. His acting career began in the late 1940s when he started acting with the Gate Theatre, 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 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, Acker Bilk and The Yardbirds. He later did two tours with The Rolling Stones, 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, and many appearances in the various Crawford Productions police drama series. During this period he also played the ongoing role of Captain Roke in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation-Artransa Film science fiction children's series Phoenix Five (1970), was the straight man on Joe Martin'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) and daughter Marilyn (Frances Hargreaves) the character became a hit with viewers.

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