Australian Dictionary of Biography

Gordon Maitland Chater (1922–1999), actor, was born on 6 April 1922 at Kensington North, London, only child of Maitland Chater, chartered accountant, and his wife Evelyn Eleanor, née Riach. From his father’s first marriage, Gordon had a half-sister, Betty. Even though he harboured ambitions to be an actor from around the age of five, his father warned that he would ‘end up in the gutter’ (Chater 1996, 18), while his mother said he was ‘too ugly for the stage’ (Chater 1996, 5). Despite this discouragement, he later recalled that ‘as a family we laughed a lot and I was nurtured and cherished by their undemonstrative love’ (Chater 1996, 23).

After attending Haileybury College, Hertfordshire, Chater began studying medicine at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1939. He quickly felt out of his depth, failed his exams, and attempted suicide. In 1942 he joined the Royal Navy, and served in the Atlantic and the Pacific during World War II; beginning his service as an ordinary seaman, from 7 January 1944 he was a temporary acting sub-lieutenant (temporary sub-lieutenant from 7 July).

Arriving in Sydney aged twenty-four in mid-1946, on leave after being demobilised, Chater liked the city and decided to stay. He was determined to be an actor: ‘I believe[d] I had a talent [for acting] … and I wanted to earn my living doing it’ (Fitzgerald 1991, 12). An introduction to Kathleen Robinson, the head of the Minerva Theatre, led to his first role, and he went on to a range of radio and stage work. For his performance in the radio play Third Party Risk, in 1952 he won a Macquarie award for best actor in a comedy role. His stage performances in the satirical, hugely popular Phillip Street Theatre revues from 1954 forged his reputation as a character actor and mimic. For several years in the mid-1960s he co-hosted a radio talk show with his friend Gwen Plumb on Radio 2GB. In 1963 he was asked to star in a television version of the Phillip Street revues on ATN7; The Mavis Bramston Show first aired in November 1964 and became an instant hit. His ability to invent comic characters that audiences recognised as ‘ordinary’ Australians, combined with daring and witty drag performances, saw him win a Gold Logie award in 1966.

Leaving Mavis Bramston, from 1966 Chater starred in Australia’s first successful television sitcom, My Name’s McGooley, What’s Yours? In 1968 the press reported that he had had a heart attack, but he had actually attempted suicide following a period of depression, and he left the show. While he remained financially secure thanks to investments, there were limited performance opportunities for him after he left McGooley, despite the ‘New Wave’ of Australian drama in the early 1970s. However, he performed in topical revues, including The Mavis McMahon Show (1972) and Scandals of ’74. In the mid-1970s he briefly managed a Sydney bar and helped to open a restaurant in Perth.

When Chater was offered Steve J. Spears’ one-man play The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin in 1976, his life changed. He later said that it was ‘the part I’d been waiting for all my life’ (Hickson 1981, 41). It was his tour-de-force: he played the cross-dressing elocution teacher Robert O’Brien and nineteen other characters. The play was a huge success, touring Australia before playing in London and America. Not only did it earn him accolades (including an Obie award for off-Broadway theatre in New York in 1979), but it offered a new feeling of financial independence. He made the most of his second summer: he secured a permanent resident’s ‘green card’ and worked in New York for twelve years. In 1990 he returned to Australia to play alongside Ruth Cracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. Shortly afterwards he moved to Labrador on the Gold Coast, Queensland, where he passed the days doing cryptic crosswords, gardening, reading, writing letters, and watching television, martini in hand. In 1994 he took out Australian citizenship.

Chater never discussed his sexuality or intimate relationships publicly. He told a journalist in 1991 that ‘of course there was a love of my life too, but I’m over that now’ (Baum 1991, Weekend Review 2). While he could be ‘serious’ and ‘gentle,’ he also had a ‘lovely lewdness and black wit’ (Pascall 1974, 9a) enjoyed by his wide circle of friends. Proud of his professionalism, self-sufficiency, and discipline, he had an elastic, highly expressive face, and a warm smile, though he struggled with his weight, especially as he aged. In 1994 he declared: ‘I’ve been around the world about 15 times. I’ve got wonderful friends everywhere. I’ve had a bloody good life’ (Cadzow 1994, 14). His memoir, titled (The Almost Late) Gordon Chater, was released in 1996, and in 1999 he was appointed AM. He died on 12 December 1999 at Southport, Queensland, survived by a niece and a nephew, and was cremated.