Mike Dorsey

Q: When did Mike Dorsey die?

Mike Dorsey died on October 24, 2014.

Q: How old was Mike Dorsey when they died?

Mike Dorsey was 84 years old at the time of death.

Michael James Dorsey (4 January 1930 – 24 October 2014) was an English-born Australian theatre and television actor, publicity officer, and tour manager.

Dorsey appeared in the TV series The Unloved, but was best known for his television soap opera roles in Number 96 as Reginald "Daddy" McDonald, and The Young Doctors, as Sir Clifford Langley. He also played Pop in the series Lockie Leonard.

Early life and career

Dorsey was born in Yorkshire, England in January 1930. His acting career began in the late 1940s when he started acting in small parts with the Gate Theatre, Dublin. After three years in the army, Dorsey returned to acting in the early 1950s, with several minor stage roles on the UK provincial theatre circuit.^{[citation needed]}

Publicity officer

The scarcity of acting work led to a career change in 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.

Acting career

Dorsey's career as an actor and performer quickly took off after emigrating to Australia, beginning in the mid-1960s, he had several guest-starring roles in Australian TV series including Riptide, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, and many appearance's 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). He was the straight man on Joe Martin's show Tonight on Channel Ten.

He had a brief role as a police detective in series Number 96 in 1972, but in January 1974, he gained the regular role in the serial of the comedy character Reginald P. MacDonald, often referred to by his wife and daughter as "Daddy". 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 there adopted daughter Marilyn (Frances Hargreaves), the character became a hit with viewers, however unlike other regular members of the cast, they didn't feature in the Number 96 feature film version. In late 1976, there were plans to spin off the characters known as Mummy and Daddy into a new situation comedy series titled Mummy and Me,, However, 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 (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 over a period of nearly two years.

In 1978–1979, Dorsey played an ongoing role on the hospital-based soap opera The Young Doctors. He then took the regular role of Vic Marshall in Network Ten's daily soap opera Arcade (1980), a notorious critical and popular failure cancelled after being on air only six weeks. Dorsey subsequently ran a theatrical group.

After having not appeared in roles since 1990, Dorsey was cast in 2007 in the role of 'Pop' in the children's television series 'Lockie Leonard', filmed in Western Australia, in which he played the role of Lockie's grandfather. He portrayed the role in the first and second series as a recurring character, but not actively as a main role.

Personal life

Dorsey married his lifelong partner, Pamela Borain, on 18 April 2010, at their property in Baldivis, Western Australia, where they lived. He died peacefully aged 84, at Rockingham General Hospital on Friday 24 October 2014.

About Mike Dorsey

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Early life and career

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Test Your Knowledge – Trivia Challenge

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1.In what year was Mike Dorsey born?

2.Which theatre group did Mike Dorsey perform with at the start of his acting career?

3.Before becoming a full-time actor in Australia, what profession did Mike Dorsey pursue in London?

4.Which famous musical act did Mike Dorsey work with during his time as a publicity officer?

5.In what year did Mike Dorsey decide to permanently settle in Australia?

6.In the science fiction series Phoenix Five, what character role did Mike Dorsey play?

7.What was the name of the character Mike Dorsey played in the soap opera Number 96?

8.What catchphrase did the character Reginald McDonald frequently use to show indignation?

9.Why were the characters 'Mummy' and 'Daddy' not featured in the Number 96 feature film?

10.What was the title of the proposed spin-off series for the characters 'Mummy' and 'Daddy'?

11.What was the outcome of the soap opera Arcade, in which Mike Dorsey played Vic Marshall?

12.Which character did Mike Dorsey play in the children's television series Lockie Leonard?

13.Who did Mike Dorsey marry in 2010?

14.At what age did Mike Dorsey pass away?

15.In which city or town did Mike Dorsey and his wife live at the time of his marriage?

16.In which hospital did Mike Dorsey die?

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