Obituary: Ian Turpie

Australian showbusiness has lost one of its true veterans with reports that Ian Turpie has died from cancer at the age of 68.

Born in Melbourne in 1943, his career started as a child actor back in the 1950s working in radio and theatre productions.  He later moved to television as a performer on variety shows including Bandstand, Sing Sing Sing (formerly The Johnny O’Keefe Show) and the Melbourne-based daytime show Time For Terry.

In 1964, Turpie became the first “victim” in the iconic television drama series Homicide, playing the role of a university student who was shot dead while staging a mock bank hold-up in the opening scenes of the first episode.

He was later a host of the mid-1960s pop music program Go!!

Working as a variety and club performer during the 1970s Turpie made a television hosting comeback in 1981 on The New Price Is Right (pictured), a reprisal of the game show franchise that had last appeared on Australian TV in the mid-1970s.  The show was a hit for the Seven Network and lasted for around four years.  He was to revisit the format in 1989 when the Ten Network launched The Price Is Right as a Saturday night program.

In the early 1980s he hosted a variety program, Turpie Tonight, for Perth channel TVW7.  The program won a TV Week Logie in 1983 for Most Popular Program in Western Australia.

He also hosted game shows Press Your Luck, The Newlyweds Game and Supermarket Sweep.

Later television appearances included drama series Always Greener and comedies Club Buggery, Pizza, Swift And Shift Couriers and Housos.

He was diagnosed with cancer early last year.

Last May he was inducted into the Mo Awards’ Hall of Fame and there is now an online campaign via Facebook to have Turpie inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Ian Turpie is survived by wife Jan, three children and three grandchildren.

Source: Yahoo7, Ian Turpie, IMDB, TV Eye – Classic Australian Television, Daily Telegraph.

Johnny Young for ARIA Hall of Fame

Johnny Young, the 60s pop star who created a generation of stars with the long-running Young Talent Time, is to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as recognition of his contribution to the Australian recording industry.

Born in the Netherlands but raised in Perth, Young was a chart-topper with songs including Cara-Lyn and Step Back and wrote several hits that went on to become ‘60s anthems, including Smiley and The Real Thing.  He also hosted a pop music program, Club 7Teen, for Perth’s TVW7. 

In the late ‘60s, he featured on Melbourne-based pop music programs Go!! and Happening before starting Young Talent Time – a talent quest and variety series cast with junior performers.  Young’s adaptation of the Beatles song All My Loving served as the closing signature tune for Young Talent Time.

Under Young’s guidance, Young Talent Time created stars from child performers like Jamie Redfern, Tina Arena, Jane Scali, Sally Boyden, Debbie Byrne, Phillip Gould, Karen Knowles and Dannii Minogue.  The show won TV Week Logie awards for Best Variety/Music Program in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976 and in 1982 won a special Logie for sustained excellence in television.  His chain of talent schools, started in the late ‘70s, continue to operate across Australia today.

In 1990, Young was inducted in the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Young, 65, is now back in Perth presenting the breakfast program on radio station 6IX and is still performing.

The ARIA Awards’ Hall of Fame presentation is to be held on 27 October, hosted by Julia Zemiro. Also to be inducted this year are John Williamson, The Models, The Loved Ones and The Church.

Source: Daily Telegraph, Wikipedia, Johnny Young Talent School, Australian Television Information Archive