Reg Grundy dies age 92
Australian television mogul Reg Grundy has peacefully passed away at age 92 in the arms of his wife.
REG GRUNDY'S TV HALL OF FAME
* The Restless Years
* The Young Doctors
* Prisoner, Glenview High
* Sons and Daughters
* Neighbours
"Reg Grundy has passed away in the arms of his beloved wife Joy on their Bermuda estate," Alan Jones said on 2GB radio on Monday.
Grundy was behind popular Australian soap operas including Class of '74, Class of '75, The Restless Years, The Young Doctors, Prisoner, Glenview High, Sons and Daughters and Neighbours.
Devastated friends, colleagues and fans have paid tribute to Grundy over social media, with many describing him as an inspiration.
"Totally shattered to hear Reg Grundy has passed. Didn't just make TV he defined it. My thoughts to wife Joy & anyone touched by his magic," journalist Andrew Jaffrey wrote.
Australian television and media legend Reg Grundy has died at the age of 92. https://t.co/Prx0q3J3v2
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) May 8, 2016
"RIP Reg Grundy... Without you I probably wouldn't have loved 80's TV or got my first Aussie TV job on Wheel of Fortune! #legend," Natty Longshot said on Twitter.
"Dang, Reg Grundy. I've been working in the company you started for ten years, so this is big, sad news to a lot of people here," Jo Thornely wrote.
Born on August 4, 1923, in NSW, Reginald Roy Grundy was the only child of working-class parents Roy Grundy and Lillian Lees, who met in a chocolate factory on the cusp of the Depression.
He left school at 15, served in the army during World War II and worked as a ladies sportswear buyer for department store David Jones.
He started working in radio as a sports commentator, specialising in boxing, for 2SM Sydney. He also did voice-over work for cinema advertiser Chas E Blanks.
While working at 2CH Sydney in 1957 Grundy developed and hosted the radio show Wheel Of Fortune.
Later adapted for television, it debuted on TCN9 on September 1, 1959, with Grundy as host. His first wife, Lola, doubled as production assistant and hostess.
But Grundy was never confident in front of the camera and soon moved behind the scenes, founding The Reg Grundy Organisation.
By the 1970s, Grundy's was a force in Australian TV, producing the bulk of locally made television and game shows. Grundy also co-produced ABBA: The Movie in 1977.
"I had probably 3000 people working for me at the highlight of my career, and I loved them, I think they loved me too," Grundy said at the launch of his biography in 2010.
Throughout his leadership, Grundy controlled and owned all the shows he produced.
He wanted it known how he and his team led Australia "out into the world" by showing Europe how to make TV shows economically and quickly.
"This is a pretty important part of my story because we thought we were as good or better than the people making programs in those countries, and we really did educate Europe," he said.
In 1995, for $320 million, he sold out to Pearson Television, which is now known as FremantleMedia.
In 2014, Grundy was 58th on the annual BRW Rich List, with an estimated fortune of $766 million. In 2015 it estimated his wealth at $809 million.
Grundy married Chambers in 1971. She had featured in several Grundy soaps, including The Restless Years, The Young Doctors and Neighbours. For the past three decades they lived mostly in Bermuda.
There Grundy indulged his passion for photographing wildlife, publishing books and staging exhibitions of his work.
Grundy was also a serious art collector. He and Chambers sold 89 pieces of work in Sydney in 2013 for $19.16 million, in what was then Australia's most valuable single-owner art auction.
The Art Gallery of NSW paid $1.952 million for a John Brack painting, The New House, and $1.464 million for another, The Breakfast Table.
He was awarded an OBE in the 1983 Queen's New Year's Honours List and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2008. He released an autobiography in 2010.
Grundy's health had been deteriorating in recent years, but the cause of his death has not been revealed.
His death comes one day after the Logies, the night-of-nights for the Australian television industry.
He is survived by wife Joy and Kim Grundy, his daughter from his first marriage to Lola Powell.
More to come.
News break – May 8
