Malcolm T. Elliott
Malcolm T. Elliott | |
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2UW |
Malcolm T. Elliott (13 May 1946 – 8 August 2019) was an Australian radio personality, television host and journalist.[1][2]
Early life and education
He was born Malcolm Allan Elliott at Coburg, Victoria, on 13 May 1946, to Allan Hamilton Elliott and Marion Rose Elliott (née Walters).
Career
Elliott started out as a printing compositor with Leader Group newspapers in
Elliott joined
In 1975 Elliott was voted "The Most Popular Radio Personality" in NSW by TV Week and awarded a Logie.[citation needed]
24-hour lock-in
On 14 and 15 January 1974 he "pretended" to cut the electric locks on the 2UW studio doors and locked himself in the studio for 24 hours, while the other presenters adjourned to the local "City Hotel". Thousands of people filed through the studios to see him and people all over Sydney turned off their television sets and "watched" the radio. The public seemed to readily accept the "lock-in" as the gag it was, whilst management at other stations local and interstate believed that he had taken over the station. It resulted in a spike in the next ratings figures which took 2UW to its highest ever breakfast rating to that time.
Television
Elliott's television work included In Wollongong Tonight on WIN-4 in 1981, as a last minute replacement for Eric Walters who felt uncomfortable with the proposed format. Elliott had worked at Channel 7 Adelaide hosting "Long-Weekend" movie marathons for PD Lynton Taylor. When Taylor joined the Nine Network in Sydney in 1973 he appointed Elliott as one of the 5 regulars of Celebrity Squares along with Bert Newton, Don Lane, Chelsea Brown, and Ugly Dave Gray, who gave Elliott the nickname of Malcolm T-shirt Elliott.
Elliott also worked for the ill-fated mellow rock 87-2GB in 1976–1977,
Marketing and No 1
In the 1980s, Elliott graduated from the
Health
On 11 June 2004 he underwent quintuple bypass surgery after experiencing shortness of breath whilst on holiday at his new Northern Rivers home. He left 2UE in October 2004 to retire to the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. In March 2010 he underwent twelve weeks of radiotherapy at Coffs Harbour Hospital for prostate cancer. On 12 October 2015 he underwent heart ablation surgery and the inserting of a Pacemaker/Defibrillator at Pindara Hospital at Benowa Waters in Queensland. On 28 January 2016 he had his gallbladder removed and an umbilical hernia repaired at the John Flynn Hospital at Tugun.
Later years
While retired from day to day broadcasting, his international date files, "It Happened Today", were used extensively on 2UE's and 2GB's Alan Jones breakfast show from 1992, and were also featured in Webster's CD Encyclopaedia in 1997. He married Brenda Holland on 30 August 1975 and had one daughter (Alicia, born November 1975). They divorced in 1992. He remained single for nine years until he married a widow with three children, Pamela Miller (née Bunt) from Glenhaven in Sydney on 17 February 2001. In 2018 he was living at his property at Goonellabah (a suburb of Lismore) in northern New South Wales.
Elliott was found dead on 8 August 2019 in a motel room in Lismore.[3]
References
- ^
Heading, Rex (1996). Miracle on Tynte Street: the Channel Nine story. OCLC 38409335. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
- ^
OCLC 85833595. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
- ^ "Vale: Malcolm T. Elliott". TV Tonight. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.