Googie Withers' and John McCallum's long, long love affair with the Australian public started more than half a century ago, in 1955.
John Neil McCallum was born on 14 March 1918 in Brisbane.
He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Googie Withers' and John McCallum's long, long love affair with the Australian public started more than half a century ago, in 1955, when they made their Australian debut at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne in, what J.C. Williamson's publicity proclaimed to be the 'smoothest, smartest, sparkling success,' Simon and Laura, a new London comedy by Alan Melville. The anticipation was extraordinary. John was the local boy returning from overseas triumphs, while Googie was already well known to Australians from her many British films.
John Neil McCallum was born on 14 March 1918 in Brisbane, where his father ran the Cremorne Theatre. He appeared in several amateur productions, such as Brisbane Repertory Theatre Society's Hamlet at the Princess Theatre, Woolloongabba, in September 1936. Later that year he went to London. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, worked in British repertory and, in 1939, appeared with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the Old Vic. After war service with the AIF, he worked for J.C. Williamson's, producing The Wind and the Rain at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, starring opposite Gladys Moncrieff in revivals of The Maid of the Mountains and Rio Rita, and playing in Susan and God, By Candlelight and Claudia at the Comedy in Melbourne. He then returned to London. In his second British film, The Loves of Joanna Godden, he found himself co-starred with Googie Withers.