| Birth Date: | 1930 1, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Yorkshire, England |
| Death Date: | (aged 84) |
| Death Place: | Rockingham, Western Australia, Australia |
| Nationality: | English Australian |
| Years Active: | late 1940s-1990, 2007 |
| Notable Works: | Number 96 - The Young Doctors - Lockie Leonard |
Mike 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.[1]
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, Dorsey returned to acting in the early 1950s, with several minor stage roles on the UK provincial theatre circuit.
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.
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). He was the straight man on Joe Martin's show Tonight on Channel Ten and he also had a brief role as a police detective in Number 96 in 1972.
Beginning in January 1974, Dorsey played the regular role in serial Number 96 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 daughter Marilyn (Frances Hargreaves) the character became a hit with viewers.
In late 1976, there were plans to spin off the characters of Mummy and Daddy into a new situation comedy series titled Mummy and Me, starring Dorsey and Blacklock. 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 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.
On 18 April 2010, Mike married his lifelong partner, Pamela Borain, at their property in Baldivis, where they lived. He died peacefully aged 84 at Rockingham General Hospital on Friday 24 October 2014.
| Title | Year | Role | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Little Jungle Boy | Doctor Mike Martin | TV film | |
| 1973 | Night of Fear | The Lover | Feature film |
| Title | Year | Role | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Contrabandits | George Bishop | TV series | |
| 1967 | Hunter | Mike Edwards | TV series | |
| 1968 | Skippy the Bush Kangaroo | Alan Condon | TV series | |
| 1968 | The Unloved | TV series, 210 episodes | ||
| 1969 | Riptide | Professor Bruce Crane / Toby Dale | TV series | |
| 1970 | The Rovers | Brian McCall | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1970 | The Link Men | Jack Westam | TV series | |
| 1970 | Phoenix Five | Captain Mike Roke | TV series, 26 episodes | |
| 1971 | Spyforce | American Officer | TV series | |
| 1971 | The Comedy Game | Reporter | TV series | |
| 1972 | Catwalk | Don Jennings | TV series | |
| 1967-73 | Homicide | 3 roles | TV series | |
| 1973 | Boney | Robert Downes | TV series | |
| 1973 | Matlock Police | Alec Gibson | TV series | |
| 1973-74 | The Evil Touch | Wallace | TV series | |
| 1974 | Silent Number | Catholic Policeman | TV series | |
| 1969-74 | Division 4 | 3 roles | TV series | |
| 1972-77 | Number 96 | Detective Superintendent Carroll / Reginald “Daddy” McDonald | TV series, 220 episodes | |
| 1977 | Glenview High | Doyle | TV series | |
| 1979 | The Young Doctors | Sir Clifford Langley | TV series | |
| 1979 | Doctor Down Under | Mr. Soames | TV series | |
| 1980 | Arcade | Vic Marshall | TV series, 35 episodes | |
| 1990 | Jackaroo | Swanson | TV miniseries | |
| 2007 | Lockie Leonard | Pop | TV series |