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.
Early life
Born in Melbourne, Files started his career in early Australian television and semi-professional theatre in 1956. He left for Canada in 1959. Having won a scholarship from the Canada Council, Files attended the National Theatre School at Montreal and Stratford, Ontario – joining the second acting year of the school in 1961 and graduating three years later. He subsequently joined John Hirsch's Manitoba Theatre Company for one season, during which time he appeared in The Taming of the Shrew with Len Cariou, and Mother Courage with Zoe Caldwell. Returning to Toronto, he played leads 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.
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 Theatre Workshop London's tour of Oh, What a Lovely War! to East Germany (for the Berliner Fest), West Germany and Belgium. Returning from Europe, he joined the company of the Bristol Old Vic, where he stayed for a season and a half performing leads and supports in Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, Man and Superman, Bartholomew Fair, Andorra, The Creeper and finally The Tale of Two Cities. In London, he worked for the International Theatre Club at the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate in Clope and The Guy and finally went to the Edinburgh Festival with their production of Sancticity, which was done at the Traverse Theatre. He also worked at Colchester Rep. for several productions, played Marat in The Promise for the Liverpool Rep., and finally appeared in the West End rock musical Your Very Own Thing at the Comedy Theatre, before returning to Canada.
During this period, Files also worked for the BBC, playing Maurice in Bruno, Konstantin in The Young Visiters and Joseph Warr in Softly, Softly; he also played Igor Gouzenko in the docu-drama The Spies. His BBC work included radio: among his roles were Stoney Jackson in Arnold Wesker's Their Very Own and Golden City. He also appeared in the MGM film The Dirty Dozen. His ability with accents proved very useful when he was invited to join the team of actors voicing Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation features at Century 21 Productions: Files started with the film Thunderbird 6, then went on to perform voices for the TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (including Captain Magenta), Joe 90 and The Secret Service (as Matthew, one of the lead characters), and also appeared in the pilot episode - "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, The Taming of the Shrew, Trip, Dracula and The Birthday Party. He then joined the Stratford Festival Company for two plays: The Italian Straw Hat and There's One in Every Marriage. For the next several years, he played leads and supports in many Canadian companies, starting with Philadelphia, Here I Come! for Theatre New Brunswick, then Loot for the Saidye Bronfmann Centre, The Trial and Twelfth Night for Toronto Arts Theatre. There followed A Quiet Day in Belfast for the Tarragon Theatre, Loot again for Theatre Plus, AC/DC for the New Theatre, Twelfth Night again for the National Arts Centre Ottawa, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for the Press Theatre, Butley in Butley for the Bastion Theatre, Relatively Speaking for Theatre Calgary and finally a review The Best of Jest for the Teller's Cage restaurant in Toronto, after which Files returned to Australia.