Gordon Sholto McDougall (born 7 February 1916 – 18 May 1991) was a Scottish-born Australian actor. He trained at the Glasgow Athenaeum (now known as The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). After immigrating to Australia, he worked primarily in theatre in numerous productions as both an actor and director, but became best known in TV soap operaNumber 96, firstly as amateur inventor Les Whittaker, who was a comedy character opposite Sheila Kennelly, his character perished in the infamous bomb blast storyline, after ratings of the series fell and it was decided to write out some of the long term older cast members, however producers realized that the decision was a mistake, and McDougall was subsequently brought back, albeit as the less successful character of Les's aristocratic brother Andrew Whittaker, the Lord McCraddenow.[1]
Career
Theatre and radio
McDougall started acting professionally in 1936 working in various facets of the entertainment industry, including radio and stage. He emigrated to Australia and started his career on stage over all-in a long career he appeared in more than 50 theatre productions.
McDougall found his widest audience through his role of amateur inventor and hospital orderly Les Whittaker, husband to brassy barmaid Norma (Sheila Kennelly), in hit soap opera Number 96. Comedy characters Les and Norma joined the series early in its 1972–77 run and became very popular and along with most of the show's regular cast, McDougall reprised his role in the 1974 film version of the series.
After a fall in ratings in 1975 Les was killed off in a dramatic revamp of the series: the famous bomb storyline. It had been decided that Les's constant crazy inventions were becoming too silly, and that his death would open up the character of Norma to new romances and other storyline's. The Number 96 producers soon realized that killing Les off was a mistake, among protest from viewers and McDougall was returned to the series in late 1976 as Les's long-lost brother, the aristocratic Lord Andrew McCraddenow. The new character did not work as well as Les had, and six months later both Andrew and Norma were written out of the series during another cast revamp.
