Greg Stone is an actor best known for appearing in more than 70 stage productions, and is about to appear in Girl from the North Country in Melbourne. He is currently in a relationship. The 60-year-old opens up about his first kiss, what his children have taught him, and why he doesn’t feel the need to remarry.

My maternal grandmother, Olive, was a petite woman always full of laughter, big hugs and stories. She looked after me when I was very young because my mother, Jenny, worked full time. Her ability to tell stories had a big influence on me.

In the 1970s, Mum was a secretary of a football club. It was unusual for women to work full-time in this era. My father, Roy, was well loved but unreliable; it was Mum who kept our family together – and still does. She is a strong and powerful woman who ran the house, mothered three kids, worked a 9-to-5 job, then would come home to cook dinner. She was firm but fair.

Mum met Dad when she was 15 and they married when she was 18. He was a farmer. I think she thought she was marrying a rich farmer but it didn’t work out that way. Dad died 10 years ago.

Mum has a new boyfriend, an old childhood sweetheart. They met five years after Dad died. She told me she never thought romance was possible after his death, but in her early 70s she found love again.

I got into the National Institute of Dramatic Art at 19. Mum has always been supportive of my decision to become an actor, although she wanted me to also have a secure job to have something to fall back on. I told her I didn’t intend to fall back. She still worries about me even though I’m 60!

I have a sister, Jenny, who is three years older than me. She introduced me to the music of David Bowie, T-Rex, Frank Zappa and Led Zeppelin. She was always out seeing live bands in the late 1970s in Perth. Now she lives in Melbourne, not far away from me.

I experienced my first kiss at 10 and have been fascinated by women ever since. I would meet Kerry behind the tree and we’d kiss at play time.

I was a competitive swimmer at 15, but realised how boring it was to swim in a pool compared to performing in a theatre. Theatre was also a great way to meet girls. The women I met in that scene were strong, independent, self-assured, confident and intelligent.