Terence Donovan, also billed as Terence J. Donovan and Terry Donovan, is an English-Australian actor of stage and television, and the father of fellow actor and singer Jason Donovan. He is best known for his roles as Doug Willis in soap operaNeighbours and has appeared in TV drama series since its early days, including police drama series Division 4 and Cop Shop, as well as minor parts in numerous serials including The Prisoner, Sons and Daughters, A Country Practice, E Street and Al Simpson in Home and Away.
Career
Donovan, who was born in Staines, England, has been a staple of Australian television since the early 1960s and has had minor acting roles in episodes of the court-room drama series Consider Your Verdict, several ABC drama plays, and the children's series The Magic Boomerang. Moving back to his native United Kingdom in the mid-1960s saw guest roles in series including The Champions, Man in a Suitcase, and The Prisoner. After returning to Australia and appearing in guest roles in the Crawford Productions series Homicide and Hunter in 1968, he was placed on contract, going on to play the role of Detective Mick Peters in Crawford's police series Division 4, from 1969 to 1975. In 1976, he played in a popular mini-series adaptation of the novelPower Without Glory by Frank Hardy. From 1979 to 1981, he starred as Detective Sergeant Vic Cameron in Cop Shop. Between 1981 and 1984, he had minor roles in Australian television programs, and acted in the film The Man from Snowy River in 1982, playing Henry Craig. In 1985, he had roles in Prisoner and Sons and Daughters. From 1986 to 1990, he had more minor television roles including the 1989 pilot episode of E Street as Ken Swanson which was followed by guest roles in The Flying Doctors and G.P. He was the second actor to play Al Simpson, the father of original characterBobby Simpson in Home and Away, in 1990, a role previously played by George Leppard in 1988, and followed this immediately with the role of Doug Willis in Neighbours, a character he played regularly until 1994, and made a brief appearance in 2005, when he reprised his role for the show's 20th-anniversary special. He returned in that role again in 2014. Donovan appeared in a documentary special celebrating Neighbours 30th anniversary titled , which aired in Australia and the UK in March 2015. He reprised the role of Doug Willis in episodes of the serial in 2016, culminating in the character's death. In 2003, he appeared in the drama series MDA in the role of Eric Savage, father of Richard Savage. He played the title role of Harry 'Breaker' Morant in the first public performance of Kenneth G. Ross's Australian play Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts, presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company at the Athenaeum Theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on 2 February 1978.. In the UK in the mid-1990s Donovan played Captain Hook in a tour of a musical version of Peter Pan alongside co-stars Nicola Stapleton, famous for her role in EastEnders, and a young Laurence Mark Wythe. In 2007 Donovan performed the role of Boswell in the Magnormos production of Mary Bryant. He also played the part of the slick, dishonest lawyer, Billy Flynn, in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Kander and Ebb's Chicago.
