Ray Woolf: from Pop-a-Long to King Kong...

Interview – 2011

Veteran entertainer Ray Woolf has appeared on television and film as a song and dance man, TV host and actor. Starting out as a singer, Woolf made a splash on swinging 60s music shows C’mon and Happen Inn. His career took an unusual direction when he became a co-host on long-running children’s show Play School. Showing his versatility as a performer, Woolf also hosted chat show The Ray Woolf Show, and has appeared in a number of TV dramas such as Xena, Marlin Bay, Street Legal, The Strip, and Nothing Trivial.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Woolf talks about:

Pre-recording and miming to songs in a tiny studio for the music show C’mon
Loving being part of Happen Inn, and how it gave him a strong public profile
How hosting Play School made him a hit with young mothers
Feeling intimidated by big name celebrity guests on The Ray Woolf Show
Playing bad guys on the set of Xena
Being impressed by the huge scale and skill of everyone involved in the show
The 'incredible experience' of working with Peter Jackson on King Kong
Having fun with a coffin on the movie Insatiable Moon
Enjoying playing a philanderer on the TV show Nothing Trivial
Coping with the fast paced shooting on set

This video was first uploaded on 20 December 2011, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

I really didn't get that much attention in shopping malls and restaurants and supermarkets and things like that as a result of C'mon and Happen Inn. There was a certain amount. But Play School...all of a sudden I couldn't go to the shops anymore because the young mums of course would watch with their children.
– Ray Woolf on winning fame via preschool show Play School

Ray's Full Profile