An Australian showbiz veteran
Actor and entertainer Reg Gorman has sadly passed away at the age of 89. He was a genuinely kind and generous man, and it was an absolute pleasure to have known him.
A Natural Comedian
Reg Gorman and Darren Gray in Melbourne, 2004. Photo by Sue Manger
Reg was one of the last surviving vaudevillians having been a regular fixture on the Tivoli Theatre and club circuit where he worked as a clean comic and impressionist. In 1954, George Wallace Jnr described him as 'the freshest young comic around'.
Reg didn’t have any family connections to the entertainment industry but he had natural comic flair and just wanted to make people laugh. He won his first eisteddfod at the age of 9 and performed with various youth groups before turning professional at the age of 25.
Reg Gorman in a scene from the TV series Homicide. NFSA title: 1250359
When television launched in Australia, Reg appeared in the ABC’s first attempt at a live opera, and in 1957 he made his featured television debut on the ABC as a comedian and impressionist on The Johnny Gredula Show.
Acting roles soon began to flow in on groundbreaking productions like Consider Your Verdict, Homicide, Skippy, Contrabandits, The Rovers, Whiplash, Woobinda Animal Doctor, Matlock Police, Bellbird, Boney and The Evil Touch.
Reg also had a couple of roles in Number 96, the most memorable being that of an irate father who was furious when the homosexual lawyer Don Finlayson (Joe Hasham) started showing an interest in his son. This was at a time when depictions of homosexual relationships were rare on Australian television.
Australia's Favourite Barman
Reg never had any desire to become a leading man and was quite content being a character actor but in 1969 he starred in the sitcom Mrs Finnegan playing Darby, the work-shy son of long-suffering widow Jessie Finnegan (Dolore Whiteman). Reg appeared in hundreds of stage and screen productions during his long career but it was The Sullivans which made him a household name all over the world when he was cast as Jack Fletcher in 1976. The Sullivans followed a typical family in Melbourne as they endured the Second World War and Reg remained with the show throughout its entire run.
Despite becoming Australia’s most famous barman, in real life he was allergic to alcohol so didn’t drink. Reg recalled that in one scene he was required to drink a glass of beer; it was impossible to fake the head on beer then and poor Reg was stuck with a terrible hangover for days afterwards. The Sullivans actually became a family affair for the Gorman family with his daughter Kate and wife Judith Roberts both appearing in the series.
Here is a short clip of Reg as barman Jack Fletcher from the first episode of The Sullivans in 1976:
