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IAN TURPIE

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Ian-Turpie

Ian Bruce Turpie (6 November 1943 – 11 March 2012) was an Australian actor and television presenter, best known for hosting the Australia version of the long-running game show The New Price Is Right.

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

Full Name: Ian Bruce Turpie

Description: Vocalist , Guitarist, Composer, Television Host, Australia

Known For: Penguin Award, Best Light Entertainment, “The New Price Is Right”

Instruments: Voice, Guitar
Music Styles: Pop, Rock, Easy Listening

Location: United States of America

Date Born: 6th November 1943
Location Born: Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia

Date Died: 11th March 2012
Location Died: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Cause Of Death: Cancer

CONTACT DETAILS

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BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE

Ian “Turps” Turpie

Born in Melbourne in 1943, Turpie began his entertainment career at the age of 10, when he was accepted at the Hector Crawford Drama School and gained recognition as a juvenile actor working in radio and theatre. He starred in a number of radio programmes alongside Sir Robert Helpmann and June Bronhill, and featured in the radio series D24.

During his teens, he discovered a passion for music and focused on playing guitar, songwriting and singing. By the age of 16, Turpie was a seasoned radio and stage performer, touring Australia in such hits as Peter Pan, Auntie Mame and Bye Bye Birdie, and appearing in several National Theatre productions including Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Television and personal life

Television soon beckoned; in 1964, Turpie played a student shot dead in a mock bank robbery in the opening scene to the debut episode of the iconic Crawford police series Homicide, having earlier appeared in a featured guest role in an episode of the courtroom drama Consider Your Verdict.

Turpie made regular appearances on Bandstand, Time For Terry and The Graham Kennedy Show. Turpie’s talents as musician and compere were recognised at 21, when he replaced Johnny O’Keefe for a stint as national television compere on Sing Sing Sing. He was subsequently chosen to host the top-rating teenage variety show The Go!! Show from mid 1965 until the end of 1966. He was an early boyfriend of Olivia Newton-John, with whom he had starred in the 1965 Australian musical telefilm Funny Things Happen Down Under, Newton-John’s debut performance.

In the 1970s, Turpie moved to Sydney to work the club circuit, and continued to make guest appearances on numerous television shows including The Mike Walsh Show, The Bert Newton Show, A Guy Called Athol and the ABC variety series Follies.

In the 1980s, Turpie became a nation-wide figure as host of the highly successful, frenzied game show The New Price Is Right. This was followed by other game shows including Press Your Luck and Supermarket Sweep.

In the 1990s, Ian developed cult status following a regular four-year stint as Club President on Roy & HG’s Club Buggery. Known as the “Giant of the G Chord”, he performed renditions of such classics as Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, and, complete with suspenders, The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Time Warp. Less serious Club Buggery appearances in Turps about the House, Captain Ajax and Sam Stain showcased his comedic talents, as did a semi-regular role as cabaret-style singer Rolan Fields in drama series Always Greener (2001–03). From 2000 he acted in Pizza, Swift and Shift Couriers and had a lead role in Housos as Wazza Jones, who was also the program’s narrator.

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In 2004 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took legal action against Turpie for misleading and deceptive conduct in breach of the Trade Practices Act. The ACCC alleged that Turpie had made false claims (that he was losing his sexual potency) in advertisements for an erectile dysfunction treatment spray from the Australian Medical Institute.

In 2005 Turpie pleaded guilty to drink driving after driving in Manly, New South Wales, with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 (the legal limit in the state is 0.05). He was fined $867 and had his drivers licence suspended for six months; however this was overturned on appeal. After taking into account Turpie’s charity work and his need to drive to work, Judge Reg Blanch ordered that no conviction be recorded. Turpie told reporters he was sorry for doing a “stupid thing”.

Death

On 18 February 2011 it was announced that Turpie, a heavy smoker had been diagnosed with cancer. He died on 11 March 2012, aged 68.

Turpie was married to his wife Jan for 43 years and had three children and three grandchildren.

Television included:

Sing, Sing, Sing (replacing Johnnie O’Keefe)
The Go!! Show
Time for Terry co-host with Terry O’Neill
Surprise, Surprise — co-host with Tommy Hanlon Jr
The New Price Is Right
The Price Is Right
Newlyweds Game
Press Your Luck, Ch 7
Supermarket Sweep
Club Buggery (with Roy & HG)
Turpie Tonight

Awards:

Mo Award Hall of Fame (2011)
Penguin Award, Best Light Entertainment, The New Price Is Right (1985)
Logie Award, Most Popular Western Australia Show, Turpie Tonight (1983)
Penguin Award, Best Light Entertainment, The New Price Is Right (1982)

Filmography:

Funny Things Happen Down Under, as Lennie (1965)
Heaven’s Burning, cameo as used car salesman (1997)
All the Way (1998)
Somewhere in the Darkness, as the Weatherman (1998)
Kissing Kimberley Cooper (Tropfest film)

Acting:

Homicide (1964) 1 episode
The Magic Boomerang (1965) 1 episode
Consider Your Verdict (1966) 1 episode
Always Greener as Rolan Fields (2002–2003) 6 episodes
Swift and Shift Couriers as Keith Warne (2008, 2011) 19 episodes
Double the Fist as M.C (2008) 1 episode
Housos as Wazza (2011)

Guest appearances:

The Young Entertainers
This is your Life (with Mike Munro)
Love is in the Air
Long Way to the Top
All the Way
Theatre Royal
Revue 7
TeenTime
Kommotion
Bandstand (Brian Henderson)
Steve Vizard Tonight
Bert Newton Show
Blankety Blanks (Graham Kennedy)
Family Feud (Rob Brough)
The Fat (Tony Squires)
Mike Walsh Show
Don Lane Show
Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Daryl Somers)
Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
Penthouse Club (Mary Hardy)
Bandstand
A Guy Called Athol
ABC Follies
The Melbourne Show
Supermarket Sweep
Spicks & Specks
We’ll Call You

Links:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia