Gary Files

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Gary Files
Victoria, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Canadian
Alma materNational Theatre School of Canada
Occupation(s)Actor, theatre director, writer
Years active1956–present
OrganizationPeriod Pieces Company
Spouse(s)Elva Mai Hoover[1] - divorced
Janina Lebedew - partner
ChildrenGemma Files[2]
Websitewww.garyfiles.com.au

Gary Files is an Australian-Canadian actor, theatre director and radio writer who has worked in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Resident in Australia since 1976, Files is noted for the accentual versatility of his radio-based voice acting.[3]

Early life

Born in

The Provok'd Wife and Oh, What a Lovely War! at the Crest Theatre – winning a Telegram Award for the most promising newcomer for the latter. Files then left Canada to pursue his career in the United Kingdom for the next four years.[4]

While at theatre school, Files did numerous television productions for "Shoestring Theatre" at CBC Montreal. He started working in CBC radio drama with several productions for Rupert Kaplan, who was one of the first to do Eugene O'Neill's plays on radio. He also appeared in two films for the National Film Board of Canada, Henry Hudson and The Selkirk Settlers.

Career

London

In London, Files joined the

Comedy Theatre
, before returning to Canada.

During this period, Files also worked for the

Identified" - of Anderson's live-action series UFO
.

Canada

On returning to Canada, Files joined the company of the

Manitoba Theatre Centre for three plays Hail Skrawdyke, Harry Noon and Night and The Snow Queen. He then joined the Stratford National Theatre at the National Arts Centre, Ottawa, to play the lead in The Hostage, and also appeared in three plays by Mrozek
.

From there, he went to the Calgary Theatre Company for a season doing The Knack, The Father,

Relatively Speaking for Theatre Calgary[1]
and finally a review The Best of Jest for the Teller's Cage restaurant in Toronto, after which Files returned to Australia.

During this time in Canada, Files also did continuing radio drama for

OECA; he also did a drama, Prophecy, for them. There followed Angie in A Very Quiet Street with Keenan Wynn for Sterno Productions and finally Hardin in the TV series The Frankie Howerd Show for CBC Television. He also began a writing career with CBC Radio, beginning with several programmes in the series The Age of Elegance, then three programmes in The Bush and the Salon series, as well as adapting the science-fiction classics Gas Mask and Tomorrow's Child. Also a 17-episode series The Many Faces of Music, and ongoing satirical skits for As It Happens
with Don Cullen.

Australia

On his return to Melbourne, Files played the lead in City Sugar for the

Festival of Sydney and another appearance at the Opera House. To which he returned months later to play Harry Brock in Born Yesterday for the Sydney Theatre Company
.

Over the next several years, Files continued to play leads and supports in theatre. Recent work starts with Shorts at the Wharf for the S.T.C. then Mickey in Hurley Burley for the M.T.C., Stalin in Master Class for the H.V.T.C., George Coppin in Occupation Comedian for the Writer's Theatre, Gerald in Woman in Mind for the M.T.C. then A Hard God for N.E.T.C. Oscar Wilde in Oscar Wilde at the Cafe Royale for the Melbourne International Festival, For Better For Worse for Chapel Off Chapel, Alive at Williamstown Pier at the Beckett Theatre, Mysteries for the Keene/Taylor Company, Go in Tight for La Mama, Father Smythe in the Australian musical Eureka at Her Majesty's Theatre, Dr Sweet in Bug for Red Stitch Theatre, Uncle Konrad in The Revisionist for Summers/Blackman and the Rev. Tooker in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for the M.T.C. He has toured Tasmania with the period instrument group Nuove Musiche Ensemble reading Elizabethan and Jacobean poetry and prose.

Film and television

Files has appeared in several Australian films, Money Movers, The Club, Evil Angels (A Cry in the Dark),[5] Mull and Dead End. He has also appeared in the short films "Remembering Nigel", Vigilant Healthy! Wholesome", "Desperate" and "The Wardrobe" (which he also wrote). As well as voicing two animated features The Littlest Convict and Abra-Cadabra, he also manipulated and voiced the lead muppets Simon Smedley and Aunt Matilda in The Arcade Show and Smedley's Weekly two TV series for children for the ABC. He has recently played the lead in the Tasmanian Raw Nerve initiative short film "Love Train."

He has appeared in over 35 television series and features for Australian television, the most memorable being Desert Foxes, Corp. Andy Edwards in

Tom Ramsay in the soap Neighbours
(in 1986, and again in 1990–91 and returned for a guest stint in the show's 30th year, 2015), Fred Daly in The True Believers, Frankie in Rafferty's Rules, Zeke La Russo in Inside Running, Sam McHeath in Skirts, Henry Barnes in Correlli, Kevin Howard in two series of Pig's Breakfast, Fergus Marshall in the TV series MDA, Wally Chubb in "City Homicide" and 'Doc' Evatt in "I Spry". He also played Raymon Radley in both of the animated TV series of Dogstar. Other animated TV series he has appeared in have been Quads and Ocean Girl.

Theatre director

Files started directing in 1993 when he co-founded the Period Pieces Company in an effort to revive classical theatre in Melbourne as it should be experienced. This was a company of Melbourne's finest actors (often locked into television series) who did performed readings of the classics with a complete cast – irrespective of the number of parts called for. Matching the right actors to the age of the character. Thus actors of all ages and experience worked together – something that proved immensely fulfilling – for cast, audience and director. He has directed There's One in Every Marriage, The Medieval Mystery Plays,

Trelawny of the 'Wells', When We Are Married, Rookery Nook
. The Devil is an Ass and the one-act opera Lo Sposo Deluso by Mozart – all for Period Pieces.

In 1998 Files was artistic director of Crossing the Line, doing performed readings of plays by screenwriters at the Melbourne Writer's Festival at the Malthouse. For that he directed Snoop and Gossamer. He also directed the play Allison's Rub for La Mama and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and has since directed Dorothy Parker Says for Michele Stayner at the Chapel Off Chapel.

Writer

Files writing career continued in Australia. He wrote the four-part comedy serial Uncle Vinny's Wireless for ABC–Radio, for which he won an

3LO.[3] He wrote and performed two programmes for the National Gallery of Victoria
: Wedgewood - An 18th Century First and The Spirit of Art. He wrote and performed an episode of the ABC-Radio series Hindsight: "To The Ends of the Earth", about Australia's Canadian convicts. As well as two short films which he also appeared in "The Wardrobe" and "Salt Anyone?"

Personal life

Files' daughter by his wife Elva Mai Hoover, a Canadian actress whom he met in London, is the horror fiction writer Gemma Files.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Seskevich, Elaine (4 November 1970). "Elva Mai Finally Escapes Ingenue Roles". Calgary Herald. p. 69.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78033-714-2
    .
  3. ^ a b c Watkins, Sian (22 March 1984). "Versatile Actor Puts the Accent on Radio". The Age. p. 6.
  4. ^ a b c d e Arnott, Wendy (31 January 1973). "Stage Bond With Canada". The Age. p. 11.
  5. ^ "A Cry in the Dark (1988) - Release Dates". IMDb. Retrieved 15 June 2012.

External links

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