Radio and TV actor Ross Higgins has died, aged 86.
Ross was well known for his tv character Ted Bullpit in Kingswood Country, and for his radio character acting and voiceover work.
From the Grace Gibson archives comes one of Ross Higgins’ comedy sketches as film reviewer Bill Collins.
Ross Higgins’ entertainment industry career began in 1946, when he took a cadetship at Sydney’s Radio 2GB at the age of 16. This led to an on-air announcing position, and hosting of breakfast, and later, evening variety shows.
Higgins’ wikipedia profile describes his career:
A trained singer, he soon began recording singles which lifted his profile around Australia. His flair for comedy came to the fore in the 1950s, when he became a cast member of the very popular “The Jack Davey Show”. He moved between commercial radio and the ABC, touring the country, hosting and singing with the ABC show band. It was during this period he performed with luminaries such as Peter Dawson, Slim Dusty and Mel Tormé. His radio career reached a peak in the mid-1950s, and when television arrived in 1956, he successfully made the transition, appearing on variety shows, hosting game shows (7 Network) and in the early ’60s on “Singalong” and “Bobby Limb‘s “Sound of Music” (9 Network).
During the 1960s, he consolidated his position as a leading voiceover artist, creating character voices for TV and radio ads and cartoons. His earliest character voice – “Louie the Fly”[3] (an animated fly for the Mortein fly-spray commercials),[1] is still recorded by him – most recently in 2011.[1] It is now the longest continuously running campaign in television history, having run for over 50 years (1957 – 2011)
During the mid-1960s, Higgins worked in theatre, doing several back-to-back seasons at Sydney’s Menzies Theatre Restaurant – a popular nightspot where musicals were staged. He had an ongoing role playing a priest in an early Australian soap opera Motel in (1968), and took guest roles in various series including Division 4 and Skippy.
Throughout the 1970s, he and voiceover colleague Kevin Golsby dominated Australian airwaves in the voiceover field, and while enjoying this success another break-through role came in 1977, where he and Goldsby were key regular performers in sketch comedy series The Naked Vicar Show. He played various characters in that series, which lasted two seasons. In 1980, a spin-off series based on a bombastic, Holden Kingswood driving character he had portrayed in one sketch of The Naked Vicar Show was created, titled Kingswood Country. This series had a successful five-year run, completing five-and-a-half seasons.