Shorter was born in 1945,[1][2] and worked as a police officer and truck driver before becoming an actor.
He then worked in theatre and was briefly a presenter on Play School in the 1960s and appeared in such shows as Skippy the Bush Kangaroo before moving to films where he was best known for playing the title role in the low budget biker film Stone (1974).
In 1967, he commenced playing the character of Frankie McCoy on the Seven Network series You Can't See 'Round Corners.
[1] It was announced in 1969 that Shorter had been cast as Aaron Sherritt in the film Ned Kelly.
[5][6][7][8] Shorter played a fictional New South Wales rugby league player called Frank Scully in The Forward Back which was written by Robert Caswell and was one of four Sunday night television plays broadcast by ABC TV in 1974.