John Gaden

John Stuart Gaden (born 13 November 1941) is an Australian actor and director known particularly for his stage career, although he has also made some film and television appearances.

Career John Gaden was born in Sydney where his father owned a successful legal practice, Gadens. He attended Cranbrook School, Sydney, where he performed in various school plays. After school he studied arts and law at the University of Sydney. After appearing with the Sydney University Dramatic Society, he decided to pursue a theatrical career in lieu of a legal one. In 1970 he appeared in a production of Hadrian the Seventh in Perth, directed by Sir Tyrone Guthrie, and with fellow actors Arthur Dignam and Judy Nunn. Guthrie was impressed enough with Gaden to recommend him to Robin Lovejoy, who cast him in a production of The Crucible, which resulted in a positive review from The Sydney Morning Herald'''s theatre critic Harry Kippax, which in turn led to a three-year contract with the Old Tote Theatre Company (the precursor of the Sydney Theatre Company). In Adelaide he co-directed various productions with Gale Edwards. He has also appeared with the Belvoir St Theatre and the Queensland Theatre Company.

Gaden had a strong connection with novelist and playwright Patrick White. He performed in a 1980 ABC TV adaptation of White's play Big Toys, a 1985 production of his play Signal Driver: A Morality Play for the Times and the film of White's novel The Eye of the Storm. As Artistic Director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia, Gaden commissioned White's final play, Shepherd on the Rocks (1987) and played the lead role in the premiere production, alongside Geoffrey Rush and Kerry Walker.

Gaden appears in the ABC legal comedy Fisk, where he plays retired Supreme Court Judge Anthony Fisk, father of Kitty Flanagan's character, Helen Tudor-Fisk.

Awards John Gaden was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 1986 Australia Day Honours for his services to the performing arts. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) at the 2018 Australia Day Honours.

He was won two Helpmann Awards for Best Male Actor in a Play: in 2001, for Yasmina Reza's The Unexpected Man, and in 2007, for The Lost Echo. In 2005 he won a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play for Michael Frayn's Democracy.

Personal He is divorced, and has a son and three grandchildren. He lives alone. 1970 Brecht on Brecht| The Old Dolphin Theatre 1970 The Seagull| Octagon Theatre 1970 Hadrian the Seventh| Octagon Theatre 1970 Narrow Road to the Deep North| The Old Dolphin Theatre 1970 The Voice of the Explorer| Octagon Theatre 1970 The Voice of God| St George's Cathedral, Perth 1970 The Voices of Reason and Romance| Octagon Theatre 1970 Children's Day| Tom Sutton (Emma's solicitor) St Martin's Theatre, Melbourne 1971 Hoddel's Remarkable Handcart| University of NSW 1971 King Oedipus| Leader of the Chorus Princess Theatre Melbourne, Octagon Theatre & University of Adelaide 1971 Flash Jim Vaux| James Hardy Vaux (Flash Jim) Nimrod Theatre Company 1971-72 The Man who Shot the Albatross| Princess Theatre Melbourne, Canberra Theatre, Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide & Elizabethan Theatre 1971 The Trial of the Catonsville Nine| Russell Street Theatre 1972 Uncle Vanya| University of NSW 1972 How Could You Believe Me When I Said I'd Be Your Valet When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?| Canberra Theatre with Old Tote Theatre Company 1973 Arsenic and Old Lace| University of NSW 1973 King Richard The Second| Richard II Sydney Opera House 1973 What If You Died Tomorrow?| Sydney Opera House 1974 Love for Love| Sydney Opera House 1974 The Cradle of Hercules| Sydney Opera House with Old Tote Theatre Company 1975 You Want It Don't You Billy?| Nimrod Theatre Company 1975 Peer Gynt| Sydney Opera House 1975 Singles| Nimrod Theatre Company 1976 Travesties| Henry Carr Nimrod Theatre Company 1976 A Handful of Friends| Playhouse, Adelaide 1976 Never the Twain| Playhouse, Adelaide 1976 The Recruiting Officer| Captain Plume Nimrod Theatre Company 1976 The Duchess of Malfi| Ferdinand Nimrod Theatre Company 1976-77 Dirty Linen| Cocklebury-Smythe MP Nimrod Theatre Company 1977 Young Mo| Mr Sluice / Stiffy Nimrod Theatre Company 1977 Travesties| Henry Carr Nimrod Theatre Company 1977 Ashes| Colin Harding Nimrod Theatre Company 1978 Oedipus the King / Oedipus at Colonus| Creon Playhouse, Adelaide 1978 Three O'Clock Farewell| Playhouse Adelaide 1978-79 Kold Komfort Kaffee| Actor / singer Nimrod Theatre Company & Space Theatre, Adelaide 1978 Pandora's Cross| Mac Greene Paris Theatre, Sydney 1978 Visions| President Lopez of Paraguay Paris Theatre, Sydney 1978 Jumpers| Professor George Moore Nimrod Theatre Company 1979 Life of Galileo| Galileo Galilei Nimrod Theatre Company 1980 The Sunny South| Dick Duggan Sydney Opera House 1980 Close of Play| Benedict Sydney Opera House & Theatre Royal, Sydney 1980 The Two Gentlemen of Verona| Silvia / Speed / Sir Eglamour Seymour Centre 1980 Measure for Measure| Escalus / Abhorson Seymour Centre 1981 The Man from Mukinupin| Cecil Brunner / Max Montebello Sydney Opera House 1981 Hamlet| Ghost / Player King Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1981 Innocent Bystanders| Stables Theatre 1982 Amadeus| Antonio Salieri Theatre Royal, Sydney with Sydney Theatre Company 1983 Mostly Mozart - Australian Chamber Orchestra| Narrator Sydney Opera House 1983 The Way of the World| Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1984 The Pillars of Society| Karsten Bernick Sydney Opera House 1985 Signal Driver| Theo Belvoir Theatre Company 1985 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui| Seymour Centre 1986 Dreams in an Empty City| Wilson Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia for Adelaide Festival of Arts 1986 The Real Thing| Henry Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1986 Wild Honey| Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1987 Shepherd on the Rocks| Reverend Daniel Shepherd Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1987 The Winter's Tale| Leontes / Shepherd Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1988 1841| Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia for Adelaide Festival of Arts & Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1988 King Lear| King Lear Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1988 A Dream Play| Lawyer Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company for Festival of Sydney & Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1990 The Tempest| Prospero Playhouse, Melbourne with Melbourne Theatre Company 1989 Lost Weekend| Space Theatre, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1989 Hedda Gabler| Judge Brack Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1989 Ring Round the Moon| Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1990 The Secret Rapture| Tom French Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1990 Moby Dick| Ahab Malthouse Theatre for Melbourne International Festival of the Arts 1990 Present Laughter| Garry Essendine Playhouse, Melbourne with Melbourne Theatre Company 1991 Racing Demon| Reverend Lionel Espy Playhouse, Melbourne with Melbourne Theatre Company 1991 Uncle Vanya| Vanya Russell Street Theatre with Melbourne Theatre Company 1991 A Flea in Her Ear| Chandebise Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1991-92 Money and Friends| Peter Suncorp Theatre, Brisbane, Sydney Opera House, Playhouse, Melbourne, Playhouse, Adelaide & Canberra Theatre with Queensland Theatre Company 1991-92 The Wizard of Oz - The Musical| Professor Chester Marvel / The Wizard / The Gatekeeper State Theatre, Melbourne with RSC 1992-93 Death and the Maiden| Roberto Miranda Wharf Theatre, Russell Street Theatre, Playhouse, Perth, Space Theatre, Adelaide & Sydney Opera House with Melbourne Theatre Company 1993 Coriolanus| Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1993 The Visit| Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1994 Furious| Space Theatre, Adelaide for Adelaide Festival of Arts, Malthouse Theatre & Sydney Theatre Company 1994 Hysteria, or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Mind| Sigmund Freud Playhouse, Melbourne with Melbourne Theatre Company 1995 Sydney Stories 1: The Ninth Wonder / The Price of Prayer / The Last Days of a Famous Mime / Family Running for Mr. Whippy| Wharf Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 1995 Picasso at the Lapin Agile| Belvoir Theatre Company 1995 Saint Joan| Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1995 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?| Glen Street Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 1995 Arcadia| Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia, Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company, Theatre Royal, Hobart, Canberra Theatre & His Majesty's Theatre, Perth 1996 As You Like It| Wardrobe Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1996-97 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?| Queens Park Theatre, Perth, Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, Esperance Civic Centre, His Majesty's Theatre, Perth, Theatre Royal, Hobart, Burnie Arts and Function Centre, Princess Theatre, Launceston, Canberra Theatre & Sydney Opera House 1997 Ariadne auf Naxos| State Theatre, Melbourne & Sydney Opera House with Opera Australia for Sydney Festival 1997 A Hard God| Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1998-2001 Cloudstreet| Lester Lamb Berth 9, Darling Harbour, Playhouse, Adelaide & Malthouse Theatre, Theatre Royal, Sydney, Playhouse, QPAC, Olivier Theatre, London & Harvey Lichtenstein Theater, New York with Company B Belvoir / Black Swan Theatre 1998 Henry IV| Falstaff Sydney Opera House, Canberra Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, Theatre Royal, Hobart, Monash University, His Majesty's Theatre, Perth & Sydney Opera House with Bell Shakespeare 1998 Love for Love| Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 2000 The White Devil| Cardinal Monticelso Theatre Royal, Sydney with Sydney Theatre Company 2000 The Unexpected Man| Persky Belvoir Theatre Company & Fairfax Studio, Melbourne 2001 No Man's Land| Spooner / Hirst Queensland Theatre Company & Sydney Theatre Company 2002-04 Copenhagen| Niels Bohr Wharf Theatre, Athenaeum Theatre, Glen Street Theatre, Monash University, Playhouse Canberra & Playhouse, QPAC with Sydney Theatre Company 2003 Waiting for Godot| Vladimir Belvoir Theatre Company 2003 Major Barbara| Andrew Undershaft Parade Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 2003 The Fever| Belvoir Theatre Company 2004 Victory: Choices in Reaction| Scrope Wharf Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 2004 The Miser| Harpagon (The Miser) Sydney Opera House 2005 Democracy| Sydney Theatre Company 2006 The Lost Echo| Tiresias Sydney Theatre Company 2005 Stuff Happens| Jack Straw (British foreign minister) Seymour Centre & Comedy Theatre, Melbourne 2005 The Cherry Orchard| Gaev Wharf Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 2006 Mother Courage and Her Children| Wharf Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 2006 The Bourgeois Gentleman| Philosophy Tutor Sydney Theatre Company 2007-08 The Season at Sarsaparilla| Clive Pogson Sydney Opera House & Playhouse, Melbourne with Sydney Theatre Company 2007 The Art of War| Patterson Blake / Emmett / Chorus Wharf Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 2007 A Midsummer Night's Dream| Starveling / Peaseblossom Sydney Theatre Company 2007 Tales from the Vienna Woods| Leopold Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 2008 The Serpent's Teeth: Citizens| Rasid Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 2009 The War of the Roses| Sir John Falstaff / John of Gaunt / Edmund, Duke of York His Majesty's Theatre, Perth & STC 2009 Pericles Gower (Narrator) & others Sydney Opera House & Playhouse, Melbourne 2009 King Lear| Lear Dunstan Playhouse 2010 The Trial Priest &.Herr Huld Subiaco Arts Centre, Malthouse Theatre & Wharf Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company & ThinIce 2011-12 The Wild Duck| Håkon Werle (Greger's father) Belvoir Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre & National Theatre, Oslo 2011 The Seagull| Pyotr Nikolayevich Sorin Belvoir Theatre Company 2011 No Man's Land| Hirst Bille Brown Theatre with Queensland Theatre & Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 2012 Face to Face| Uncle Sydney Theatre Company 2013 Other Desert Cities| Lyman Wyeth Southbank Theatre with Melbourne Theatre Company 2013 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Polonius Sydney Theatre 2013 Hamlet| Claudius Belvoir Theatre Company 2013-14 The Wild Duck| Håkon Werle (Greger's father) MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Amsterdam, Barbican Theatre, London & Heath Ledger Theatre 2015 Seventeen| Mike Belvoir Theatre Company 2015 Orlando| Elizabeth / Chorus Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 2016 Straight White Men| Ed Fairfax Studio with Melbourne Theatre Company 2016 The Hansard Monologues: Age of Entitlement| Malcolm Turnbull Glen Street Theatre, Seymour Centre, Bruce Illawarra Performing Arts Centre & Old Parliament House, Canberra 2016 A Life in the Theatre| Robert Eternity Playhouse with Darlinghurst Theatre Company 2017 2071| Professor Chris Rapley Seymour Centre with Australian Theatre for Young People 2017 The Rasputin Affair| Vlad Ensemble Theatre 2018 Saint Joan| inquisitor / Archbishop Roslyn Packer Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 2018-19 Diplomacy| Raoul Nordling Ensemble Theatre 2019 Packer & Sons| Rupert Murdoch Belvoir Street Theatre 2023 Do Not Go Gentle| Oates Roslyn Packer Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 2023 Mr Bailey's Minder'' Leo Bailey Ensemble Theatre

Source: AusStage

As crew Year Title Role Type 1980 The Ballad of Billy Lane Director Stables Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 1981 Rare Words - Brave Deeds Playwright / Director Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1981 No End of Blame Director Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1981 Innocent Bystanders Director Stables Theatre with Sydney Theatre Company 1982 The Conquest of Carmen Miranda Director Sydney Theatre Company 1983 The Portage to San Cristobal Director Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1983-85 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Co-director Theatre Royal, Sydney, State Theatre, Melbourne & Festival Theatre, Adelaide with Sydney Theatre Company 1984 The Conquest of Carmen Miranda Director Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company 1985 The 1985 Scandals Director Belvoir Theatre Company & Universal Theatre 1986 Pravda Director Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1987 After Magritte Director Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1987 Much Ado About Nothing Director Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1987 Les Liaisons Dangereuses Director Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia 1988 1841 Co-director Playhouse, Adelaide with State Theatre Company of South Australia for Adelaide Festival of Arts & Sydney Opera House with Sydney Theatre Company

Filmography

Film YearTitleRoleNotes 2023 The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race Dr Holliday Featured film 2016 The Death and Life of Otto Bloom Charles Reiner Mockumentary film 2011 The Eye of the Storm Arnold Wyburd Feature film 2004 Right Here Right Now Judge Doyle 2003 Excursion Narrator Short film 2001 WillFull Bill Feature film 1998 A Little Bit of Soul Dr. Sommerville Feature film 1997 Thank God He Met Lizzie Dr O'Hara Feature film 1996 Children of the Revolution Professor C.W. Wilke Feature film 1995 Mushrooms Reverend Braningan 1995 Dad and Dave: On Our Selection Reverend McFarlane Feature film 1994 Muriel's Wedding Doctor Feature film 1984 Conferenceville Ian Selfridge TV movie 1980 Big Toys Ritchie TV movie 1978 The Tichborne Affair TV movie 1977 The FJ Holden Waiter Feature film1976 Mad Dog Morgan Extra Feature film 1976 Caddie Solicitor Feature film 1976 God Knows Why, But It Works Defence Counsel 1975 I'm Here, Darlings! TV movie 1973 The Affray at Fogg's Humpy Frank Gardiner Short film 1973 The Taming of the Shrew TV movie

Television YearTitleRoleNotes 2022 Bump Kenny 2 episodes 2021–present Fisk Anthony Fisk 7 episodes 2022 Significant Others Pastor 1 episode 2020 Operation Buffalo Swanny 3 episodes 2010–18 Rake Governor General 2 episodes 2013 A Place to Call Home Dr. Stewart 1 episode 2012Underbelly Merv Grogan 2 episodes 1994 Halifax f.p. Toser's Solicitor 1 episode 1985 Mother and Son Funeral Assistant 1 episode 1980 Players in the Gallery TV miniseries 1979 A Place in the World Warwick Lacey TV miniseries, 1 episode 1977 Beyond Reasonable Doubt Defence 1 episode 1976 Luke's Kingdom D'arcy 1 episode 1975 The Explorers Performer 1 episode 1975 Homicide George McKenna 1 episode 1975 Matlock Police Walter Anderson 1 episode 1975 Behind the Legend S.T. Gill 1 episode 1974 Flash Nick from Jindavick Sergeant Carson 1 episode 1968 Contrabandits Crowe 1 episode

Audiobooks Year Title Role Fireman Sam Narrator Magic Mountain Narrator