Garry McDonald (born October 30, 1948) is an Australian stage and screen actor. October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ...

McDonald, a graduate of Cranbrook School and NIDA, first came to wide public attention playing the supporting character "Kid Eager" in the second series of the groundbreaking Australian TV comedy series The Aunty Jack Show in 1973. It was while working on Aunty Jack that McDonald first performed the character for which he would become best-known, the gauche and inept regional TV personality, Norman Gunston. Cranbrook Kingswood is a private, K-12 school located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. ... Nida may have one of the following meanings. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Norman Gunston was a satirical character created by the Australian comic actor Garry McDonald. ...

Norman's first appearance was in a series of brief sketches (written by Wendy Skelcher) which saw him reporting uncomfortably on a "sex-scandal drought" in his home town, the NSW regional city of Wollongong — a drought he eventually breaks by appearing nude on camera. Wollongong is an industrial city located on the eastern coast of Australia in the state of New South Wales. ...

After Aunty Jack, McDonald went on to work with the same team in the comedy miniseries Wollongong The Brave (1973) and Flash Nick from Jindivik (1974). The Gunston character was revived for one episode of Wollongong The Brave, a parodic showbiz biography entitled "Norman Gunston: The Golden Weeks".

Around the time of his major breakthrough on Australian TV in 1975, McDonald also made his first major film appearance, playing a minor role in the landmark Peter Weir film Picnic At Hanging Rock. Peter Weir (born August 21, 1944) is an Australian film director. ...

In 1975, McDonald revived the Gunston character for TV with the help of a crack writing team that included Morris Gleitzman (now a successful children's author) and veteran TV comedy writer Bill Harding, who had written for the pioneering Aussie TV satire The Mavis Bramston Show. Morris Gleitzman is an internationally famous childrens author. ... The Mavis Bramston Show was a popular satirical sketch comedy TV series broadcast on Australian television. ...

The new series, The Norman Gunston Show was a parody of the Tonight Show format, with Gunston now the unlikely host his own national TV variety show. After a shaky start, the series rapidly gained a sizable audience by word of mouth and by 1976 it was a runaway success, with McDonald winning the coveted Gold Logie Award that year. The series, which satirised many aspects of Australian culture and show business, was a mixture of live and pre-recorded interviews, awkward musical segments — excruciatingly sung by Norman himself in the broadest 'strine' accent — and continuing comedy sketches such as "Norman's Dreamtime" and the fondly-remembered soap-opera parody "Checkout Chicks". Norman Gunston on the cover of his 1976 book. ... The First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush and current host Jay Leno. ... The Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. ... Australian English is the form of the English language used in Australia. ...

Using Gunston's gormless personality as a cover to break down the defences of his 'victims', McDonald pioneered the satirically provocative "ambush interview" technique, which was used to great effect in legendary interviews with Paul McCartney, Muhammad Ali, Keith Moon and Sally Struthers. Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born June 18, 1942) is a British singer, musician and songwriter, who first came to prominence as a member of The Beatles. ... Muhammad Ali-Haj (Arabic: محمد على) born January 17, 1942 (as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ... Keith John Moon (August 23, 1946 – September 7, 1978) was the drummer of the rock group The Who. ... Sally Struthers in the 1970s Sally Ann Struthers (born July 28, 1948 in Portland, Oregon) is a American actress, perhaps best known for her portrayal of Archie Bunkers daughter, Gloria Bunker Stivic, on the popular and groundbreaking 1970s sitcom All in the Family. ...

As Norman, McDonald also had a surprisingly successful recording career, releasing a string of satirical novelty pop records that anticipated the pop parodies of Weird Al Yankovic. Norman's hits included his hilarious demolition of the Tom Jones classic "Delilah", the punk rock pisstake "I Might Be A Punk But I Love You, Baby" and "We're All Marching In The KISS Army", a parody of the KISS single "I Was Made For Loving You". Alfred Matthew Weird Al Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is an American musician, parodist and accordion player. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... KISS is an American glam rock/hard rock band formed in New York City in 1973. ...

Edited versions of the Gunston shows were screened in the U.K. in the late 1970s and it is arguable that McDonald's pioneering work was a direct influence on the later British comedy characters Dennis Pennis, Alan Partridge and Ali G. In the late 1990s, American actor Martin Short also created a distinctly Gunston-esque talk-show host, Jiminy Glick. Paul Kaye (1965) is a British comedian and actor who made his name as shock interviewer Dennis Pennis, a geeky American. ... Alan Partridge: Every Ruddy Word Alan Partridge is a fictional character portrayed by English comedian Steve Coogan. ... Ali G, delivering the Class Day speech to the Harvard class of 2004. ... Martin Hayter Short CM (born March 26, 1950) is an actor, writer, and producer best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live. ... Jiminy Glick is a fictional character portrayed by Martin Short in the TV series Primetime Glick. ...

Although suffered inevitably from typecasting as Gunston, McDonald was able to create another memorable character in the successful ABC television series Mother and Son, in which he played the long-suffering Arther Beare, whose life is dominated by his obligation to care for his increasingly senile mother Maggie (played by the great Ruth Cracknell). Mother and Son was an Australian television sitcom produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1984 until 1994. ... Ruth Cracknell AM (6 July 1925 – 13 May 2002), Australian theatre and television actress, is one of Australias most recognized and well-loved character actresses. ...

McDonald has also appeared on stage at Sydney's Her Majesty's Theater and at Nimrod Theatres in many dramatic and musical productions.

McDonald fought a public battle with depression after an abortive attempt to revive the Gunston character in the late 1990s. He is a member of the Board of beyondblue, an Australian national depression initiative. Clinical depression is a state of sadness or melancholia that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ... beyondblue is an Australian non-profit organization which aims to increase awareness and improve the treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, and related illnesses. ...

In 1999, a portrait of Garry McDonald by artist Deny Christian won the Packing Room award at the Archibald Prize. The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize, and is the most prominent of all arts prizes, in Australia. ...

In 2005 filmed a Tele Series called Step Father of The Bride for ABC Australian Television.

External links

• 2004 interview with Andrew Denton
• 2002 interview for Australian Story