0/5

Vale: Gordon Boyd

Gordon Boyd, a popular Channel TEN variety personality in the 1960s and '70s, has died, aged 86.

gordonboydGordon Boyd, a popular variety television personality in the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 86.

The British-born actor and singer was one of TEN’s all-singing, all-dancing personalities. It is understood he died last Thursday at Sydney Adventist Hospital after a short illness.

Boyd hosted TEN’s first talent show Showcase ’65 until 1969. Amongst its notable contestants were Leila Hayes and James Pegler.

He also hosted the dating show The Marriage Game (1966-72), Gordon and the Girls (1967) an afternoon chat show and variety show The Gordon Boyd Show (1964) also featuring singer Jane Martin.

He also had guest roles in The Avengers, Riptide, A Country Practice and appeared in All Saints in 2003.

“Gordon was a long term part of our company with Showcase and all sorts of projects he was involved in,” said Crawfords Australia chief executive Nick McMahon.

“On a personal basis, I had experience with him in the early ’70s when I travelled with Showcase around the country and he was a marvellous mentor to all the young people who went through that program.”

A funeral will be held on Wednesday.

Source: Daily Telegraph

6 Responses

  1. I totally agree with all comments above I was on Showcase with “Family” in the 70s but didn’t do as well as my father (Maryborough Male Quartet) who came 1st in the viewers section in 1969
    Gordon was indeed a true gentleman

  2. I remember Gordon as a warm, friendly and helpful person.
    I, along with my band The Beavers, originally Allan Weaver & The Beavers, we were finalists in Showcase 65 & 66.
    It is with sorrow that I learn’t of his passing as we have lost a genuine gentleman.
    Please pass on my sincere condolences to his family.

  3. I have a rather unique story of how I met Gordon. It was about 1969 I think and I was a horse mad 10 yr old girl with no horse. I use to love the Holden Ad where Lanky Jack would ride into the Holden Dealership and trade his horse in on a new Holden Ute. I wrote to Gordon and asked him to ask Lanky Jack if he did not want his horse anymore, could I please have him. Gordon wrote a lovely letter back to me (which I still have) saying that Lanky Jack kept his horse as well and that he had read my letter out at many concerts.
    I had the opportunity to meet him inperson in Adelaide at the Chanel 9 Telethon about 5 years later and then again in Melbourne soon after when he secured tickets to the Showcase Final at the Dallas Brooks Hall for all of my family.
    I remember him as a very kind and generous man and he gave me a memory that I will treasure. always.

  4. Gordon was the Chairman in our Piccadilly Music Hall from June 1977 until the early 90’s. It was always an honour and privelege to enjoy his great contribtuion to the production, and to share the stage with him as we toured the country through all of New South Wales, Outback Queensland and our ‘residencies’ in three different Theatre Restaurants. He helped us in our endeavours during hundreds upon hundreds of shows, his robust voice and great sense of humour a highlight of his career with us.
    Not only was he a first rate Chairman, he also had four separate ‘spots’ of his own in the show and was also ready to help hang scenery cloths, assist with the set-up and testing of lights and sound, and muck in to help with the myriad things which we all are called upon to do when touring one-night stands around this nation.
    He made several suggestions as to how the show could prove to more smooth-running and we adopted most of them. Our longest tour was for some 8 weeks in 1983, after an Arts Council tour of the far Outback in Queensland, a short stint in a Sydney Thesatre Restaurant, and several other shows in some of the biggest Clubs in Sydney. We also played some of the smallest venues, but it made no difference to this great, charismatic and highly talented man, who always performed at the top level, even when – on occasion – he was really not feeling too well. We – along with the many, many thousands of people who saw the Music Hall at its best – are the sadder for his passing. We will probably never see, nor hear, the likes of this man again, and we all mourn his passing.

  5. I was a finalist in Showcase 1968/69 &1970.
    I always found Gordon to be most friendly and helpful he had a marvellous gift for remembering peoples names.
    I often saw him at the SCG at Cricket matches and he always remembered your name and loved a chat to see how your career was progressing.
    Please pass on my warmest condolences to his family.
    Ian Holston

Leave a Reply