Cherished comedy Mother and Son is returning to screens next
year, but it’s been a long time since Garry McDonald, the sitcom’s original son, has been seen out in public.
Many close to Garry, who became a household name playing ‘Little Aussie Bleeder’ Norman Gunston and then as the long-suffering Arthur Beare in Mother and Son, say he became more introverted not long after the show ended in 1994 after 10 years.
“I haven’t spoken to Garry for a little while,” says Geoffrey Atherden, the show’s creator and writer who is also collaborating on the new reboot.
Last reports claimed Garry, 74, was living a very private life on the New South Wales South Coast with his actress wife, Diane Craig.
The reclusive star keeps to himself and has been seen walking around his local town in quiet contemplation long after the regular throng of weekend tourists have gone home.
Garry was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 1993, which forced him to cancel the revived Norman Gunston series after two episodes.
Devastated, he sought help at St Vincent’s Anxiety Disorders Clinic in Sydney, and before long his thriving acting career was back on the rails.
“Once I went there and had cognitive behaviour therapy, that was the road back. It took a year to be really strong,” he said.
He also credited his Mother and Son co-star, the late Ruth Cracknell, as being key to his recovery.
“In the period when I had my sort of little hiccup, the one thing that kept me going in that recovery period was knowing that I had the last series of Mother and Son to do,” he said. “And that I would be back working with Ruth.”
In the years following, Garry worked tirelessly to raise awareness of anxiety disorders. In 2003 he was made an Officer (AO) in the General Division for services to mental health, and for his contribution to the entertainment industry.
He was thrilled when he found out Ruth had been one of his champions in securing him the coveted Australia Day honour.
Despite her playing his ageing mother, the sharp-as-a-tack, yet slightly dotty Maggie Beare, the comedian never saw his revered co-star as ‘old’.
“I thought she was an incredibly sexy woman,” Garry said of Ruth, who passed away in May 2002.
Regarded as one of our funniest comedians, Garry graduated from NIDA with a Diploma in Acting in 1967.
In 2012, he joined the cast of hit series Offspring. Currently, his last credit is the 2016 Aussie-filmed Hollywood romance The Light Between Oceans.
While Garry made a rare public appearance in a special celebrating 90 years of the ABC, it would delight many Aussies to see him back on their screens regularly.
Only time will tell if this much-loved son does indeed return…
