Obituary: Television host whose mild manner and mellifluous voice entertained the country’s audiences for 60 years is dead
Once the youngest radio announcer in Melbourne, Bert Newton evolved to become the most enduring media personality in the country. His prolific, multifaceted career across radio, television, stage and screen spanned more than six decades and intersected generational divides. Bob Hope once described him as “the Bob Hope of Australia”.
Newton, who has died aged 83 after several years of poor health, led Australia through the early days of television on a diet of frothy, vaudevillian entertainment. Few over the age of 40 would fail to recognise his distinctive round face, broad toothy grin and immaculately groomed hair, usually atop a tuxedo – he went through 40 dinner suits in 18 years – hosting the Logie awards or razzing floor manager Belvedere on his long-running lifestyle show Good Morning Australia. For much of his career Newton nimbly shared the talkshow limelight, either as the “second banana” to Graham Kennedy or as “barrel boy” to Don Lane, who nicknamed him Moonface.