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Vale: Stuart Wagstaff

Debonair entertainer Stuart Wagstaff, best known for Blankety Blanks and stage musicals, has died.

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Veteran entertainer and thespian Stuart Wagstaff, best known for Blankety Blanks, stage musicals and cigarette commercials, has died. He turned 90 last month.

He died of emphysema in a Sydney hospital, years after expressing concerns about the health effects of smoking. During his career, Wagstaff fronted 116 commercials for Benson and Hedges, famous for the line, “When only the best will do … and isn’t that all the time?”

But he conceded, “People often ask me if I have any regrets about doing those commercials because I think a lot of people – young, impressionable people – might have taken up smoking as a result. And I suppose I have regrets about that. But…we didn’t know then. So, I can’t have regrets about something I didn’t know.”

British-born Wagstaff emigrated to Australia in 1958 appearing in JC Williamson musicals including My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music.

His early TV Career included the 1960 Crawford Productions play Seagulls Over Sorrento plus Whiplash, Concord Of Sweet Sounds, The Hungry Ones, Studio A, Beauty and the Beast as host, The Wagstaff Report, Homicide.

In 1968 he became host of a major Tonight show on Seven and later transferred to Nine as one of the regular hosts of In Melbourne Tonight and then ABC’s Stuart Wagstaff’s World Playhouse.

Panel shows followed such as Celebrity Squares plus appearances in GP, Rafferty’s Rules, A Country Practice, All Saints, The Midday Show, Good Morning Australia and Perth’s Telethon.

But it his appearances as the debonair, erudite panelist on Blankety Blanks that is perhaps most remembered, bantering with host Graham Kennedy and bringing a touch of class to its raucous antics.

There were also many more stage appearances including productions of Noises Off, Blithe Spirit, There’s a Girl in My Soup, Present Laughter, Private Lives, The Rocky Horror Show, The Winslow Boy, Lend Me A Tenor, Crazy For You, Pan, Oliver and several theatre restaurant revues.

In December Russell Crowe arranged for Wagstaff to view his film The Water Diviner at his North Shore home, given he was too ill to attend.

In 1998 Wagstaff was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia.

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12 Responses

  1. I am really sad to hear of this news today. He was one of a kind and was a face and voice to a generation of kids and adults alike. I too remember him fondly from Blankety Blanks where he gave as good as he got with Gra Gra and had fantastic chemistry with everybody. I also have a very special memory of his World Playhouse introductions on the ABC. He will be missed but not forgotten.

  2. Great story about the inimitable Stuart Wagstaff was when he was in his prime represented by Harry M Miller and being paid a fortune for commercials. He was offered a share of revenue to do an add for a new product being introduced to Australia. He knocked the offer back believing this new product would never work. Guess the product? Glad Wrap. Vale Stuart. A true performer.

  3. My favourite male panelist from Blankety Blanks. From what I have seen from his other work he was a man who had fantastic wit, timing, professionalism along with being a true gentleman. Although he worked across all networks I hope that his passing encourages at least one to pay tribute special to the passing of a TV Legend.

  4. Saw him on stage as the Narrator in a midnight ‘Rocky Horror Show’ production here in Perth in 1988-a true trouper-he was also a regular for many years at the local Ch 7 Telethon.

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