Australian TV entertainer of the 1960s and 1970s he won several awards for his work on Australian television.He promoted younger stars and founded “The Showman Limited” to showcase young talent in on-the-road tours.
A saxophonist, he joined an Australian big band in 1946 and four years later became the country’s youngest band leader. After his 1958 marriage to a talented singer, he and his wife moved to England where he made a name for himself on television as a musician and preseter for Benny Hill’s Showcase, a popular TV show. When they returned to Australia, he was asked to assemble a 90-minute television show in celebration of the station’s anniversary.His success resulted in his own show on which his wife did comic sketches. The pair acted on live stage as well.
He and his wife Dawn had one daughter. In 1967 he was diagnosed with cancer. In the late 1970s, he and his wife separated for 14 months after 20 years of marriage in what he called one of the most difficult periods of his life. In 1983 he suffered financial losses from entertainment ventures like the development of the Sydney Harbor Showboat. Shortly thereafter he had a religious experience that deepened his faith and enriched his life.
He died September 11, 1999 of complications from diabetes.
Dawn suffered from emphysema and died suddenly on January 1, 2006 in Sydney.
Link to Wikipedia biography