Reg Livermore

Reg Livermore AO (b. 1938), stage and television entertainer, began performing as a teenager, hiring local venues to mount his own pantomimes. His first professional job was at the Phillip Street Theatre in 1957, followed by stints at the Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli and the Union Theatre Repertory Company in Melbourne. In the mid-1960s he appeared in A Cup of Tea, A Bex and a Good Lie Down with Ruth Cracknell. The show was his entrée into television; he hosted the Saturday night show I'm Alright Now before appearing regularly on The Mavis Bramston Show. After performing in the musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, his big break came when he donned a pair of high heels for the role of Frank'n'Furter in The Rocky Horror Show in 1974. The following year, his own Betty Blokk Buster Follies played to record crowds in capital cities around the country. In the late 1980s, having spent a few years tending his garden in the Blue Mountains, he resurfaced on television in Burke's Backyard; he later spent nine years on Our House. He went on to appear in various Opera Australia productions and star in musicals including The Producers, My Fair Lady and Wicked, for which he won a Helpmann Award and the Sydney Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014. In 2018, he had a sell-out six-week season of his final one-man show, The Widow Unplugged at the Ensemble Theatre. His autobiography, Chapters and Chances, was published in 2003; the second volume Stages was released in 2018.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2010
© Bill McAuley