Actors - Bert Newton

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	Actors - Bert Newton

Albert Watson "Bert" Newton, MBE (born 23 July 1938), Australian television performer, was born in Fitzroy, an inner suburb of Melbourne.

Early years

He was educated at St Joseph's Marist Brothers College and remains a strong Roman Catholic. In his early years he had thoughts of entering the priesthood. Instead, in June 1952, he got his first job working in radio doing a Saturday morning children's show on 3XY. He worked with Stan Rofe and Doug McKenzie, who was later to become "Zag" in Zig and Zag, Australia's most popular clown act of the early years of television.

Graham Kennedy & Don Lane

Newton began his television career at Melbourne's HSV-7, hosting The Late Show, but soon defected to GTV-9, where he was hired to host a daytime television program. After appearing in a live commercial on In Melbourne Tonight, alongside its host Graham Kennedy, he became a fixture on the show, which was the most popular program on Melbourne television. His partnership with Kennedy made Newton a household name.

In 1964 Newton was hospitalised after suffering a nervous breakdown. After leaving In Melbourne Tonight Newton briefly hosted his own program, The Bert Newton Show, recorded in Sydney for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. This was not a success, and he later returned to working with Kennedy. When Kennedy and GTV-9 parted company, the station tested a number of possible replacements, including Newton, but an American import, Don Lane, was eventually hired. Newton continued as Lane's sidekick and "barrel boy." Lane christened him "Moonface", and the nickname stuck.

One of the most memorable events on the Don Lane Show was when Bert Newton sent-up Demis Roussos, and Roussos came on stage while he was doing the act.

When The Don Lane Show ended Newton presented a quiz show, Ford Superquiz, produced by the Reg Grundy organisation for the Nine Network. Newton also presented a very successful radio programme on Melbourne radio station 3UZ (now Radio Sport 927).

Patti

Newton lived at home with his mother until the age of 36, prompting widespread gossip that he was gay. But in 1974 he married Patti McGrath, whom he had known since they worked together in radio and later at HSV-7. They were married at St Dominic's Parish Church in Camberwell, with Kennedy as best man. According to the police, there were ten thousand people outside the church. The Newtons have a son, Matthew, and a daughter, Lauren. Matthew Newton has become an actor and has appeared in a number of Australian films and television dramas.

The Rise of Bert Newton

By the late '70s Newton had become something of a cult figure in Melbourne. In 1979 he received an MBE. A song about him, "For Bert", was written by GTV-9's musical director Brian Rangott. The Newtons found success with a television talent show, New Faces, but a 1984 show on Seven, Tonight With Bert Newton was short-lived. In 1986 he returned to his radio roots as General Manager and broadcaster on Melbourne station 3DB.

In December 1993 Newton admitted to having a gambling problem. According to an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald in July 2004: "One day in late 1993, he woke up to read the front-page story he had been dreading: he was broke and owed $1 million." Newton sold two houses and agreed to pay creditors 40 cents in the dollar. Most of the money was owed to institutions or companies, banks, law firms and the Tax Office, rather than to individuals.

Newton hosted the Logies, the Australian equivalent of the Emmies, for 18 years. The Logies ceremonies let him be a star, rather than the 'second banana'. He had few problems with the annual Logie ceremonies, except for an infamous gaffe with guest Muhammad Ali, in which a confrontation onstage was barely avoided after the boxer interpreted a statement by Newton, "I like the boy", as a racist insult. In another incident in 1973, American actor Michael Cole, best known for his role in the TV series The Mod Squad, accepted an award while obviously drunk and ended his barely coherent thank-you speech with a four-letter word.

He has done some acting, appearing in guest roles in Australian dramas in the 1980s. He is also active in musical theatre, playing the character of the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz (starring Nikki Webster), 'Cogsworth' in Beauty & The Beast and more recently appearing in the Australian cast of the Mel Brooks musical The Producers, as Franz Liebkind.

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