Gordon Mulholland
Gordon Mulholland (1921-2010) Radio, stage and film actor and revue artist.
Contents
Biography
Born 30 April 1921 in Cape Town. He died in East London, South Africa, on 30 June 2010 at the age of 89.
He was married to the actress Diane Wilson and one of their sons, Matthew Mulholland, is a director and cameraman.
Youth
Training
Career
Involved in the South African radio drama scene.
He joined the South African Army at the outbreak of the Second World War. His natural talent for the stage landed him in the Union Defence Force Entertainment Unit in 1940 and he was sent to North Africa and Italy. This laid the foundation for his future in the world of performance. At the end of the war in 1945 he went to London where he joined several theatre companies. He eventually found work in the West End and was successful in musicals such as Kiss Me, Kate in 1951. He had his first film role in the Disney film Treasure Island in 1950.
He returned to South Africa and worked in radio and later television. He is best known for his roles in The Villagers and Westgate on television and the film Jock of the Bushveld (1986).
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Margaret Inglis directed him in The Philadelphia Story for the Munro-Inglis Company in 1945. He starred in George Washington Slept Here in 1946 with Wensley Pithey and Taubie Kushlick.
He had roles in Janus (the Brooke Theatre, 1958), he played the part of Jack Worthing in Half in Earnest (1959), he starred in The Marriage-Go-Round, which was directed by Taubie Kushlick and staged at the Intimate Theatre in September 1959, in Neil Simon’s Come Blow your Horn (Johannesburg REPS, 1962), John Steinbeck’s Burning Bright, and Saul Levitt’s The Andersonville Trial, also starring Joe Stewardson for the Reps in 1962.
He starred in Feydeau’s farce A Flea in Her Ear which was staged at the Alexander Theatre for the Reps in 1967, in Uproar in the House which was staged at The Academy Theatre of Laughter in July 1967, in Noël Coward’s Present Laughter, directed by Charles Hickman as the final production for the Reps in 1969.
He starred in Taubie Kushlick’s production of Forty Carats at the Alexander Theatre in 1971.
He starred in the Ben Travers farce, The Bed Before Yesterday presented by Pieter Toerien in 1976.
He starred in Oliver! at the Civic in 1978, Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye) in 1979 and 1985, Pieter Toerien’s production of John Chapman and Dave Freeman’s Key for Two at the Alhambra Theatre in 1982, A.R.Gurney Jr’s The Dining Room at the Baxter Theatre circa 1983 and the Alhambra Theatre in 1983.
He starred in The Marriage-Go-Round for Pieter Toerien in 1985 and in Move Over Mrs. Markham at the Alhambra Theatre in 1990. He starred in Grin and Bare It at the Victory Theatre in 1990.
He starred in Gordon Bleu at the Richard Haines in 1992. He starred in Ray Cooney’s It Runs in the Family in 1993.
Canterbury Tales (NAPAC).
Musicals: My Fair Lady (Doolittle); Oliver (Fagin); Die Fledermaus for NAPAC; Peter and the Wolf.
Radio work
Awards, etc
Vita Lifetime Achievement Award, 2002.
Sources
What About Luv? programme notes in 1993.
Tucker, 1997.
Die Burger 8 July 2010.
Go to ESAT Bibliography
Return to
Return to ESAT Personalities M
Return to South African Theatre Personalities
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page
