Gordon McDougall was an Australian-based theatre and television actor.

McDougall trained at the Glasgow Athenaeum (later known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a conservatoire of music, drama, and dance in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Educational Association, it is the busiest performing arts venue in Scotland...

) 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 more than 50 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

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....

for the Nimrod Theatre.

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

Sheila Kennelly

Sheila Kennelly is an English born Australian actress of theatre, television and film, with a vast repotoire spanning over 50 years in the industry, born in Sussex, UK she has played several television soap opera and comedy roles starting in the 1970s....

), in the phenomenally successful sex-comedy television soap opera Number 96

Number 96 (TV series)

Number 96 was a popular Australian soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block. Don Cash and Bill Harmon produced the series for Network Ten, which requested a Coronation Street-type serial, and specifically one that explored adult subjects...

. 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 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, both Andrew and Norma were written out of the series.

After Number 96 McDougall continued acting in Australian films and television dramas, including guest appearances in the soap opera Prisoner

Prisoner (TV series)

Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...

and comedy series Mother and Son

Mother and Son

Mother and Son is a Logie Award-winning Australian television sitcom produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 16 January 1984 until 21 March 1994. The show stars Ruth Cracknell, Garry McDonald, Henri Szeps and Judy Morris...

.