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Nine News - Graham Kennedy has died
Title:
Nine News - Graham Kennedy has died
NFSA ID
659542
Year
2005
Courtesy
Nine Network
Newsreader Mark Ferguson announces that Graham Kennedy has passed away in a nursing home, aged 71. Among the friends and former colleagues paying tribute on his passing are Noeline Brown, Tony Sattler, Ken Sutcliffe, Stuart Wagstaff, Graeme Blundell, Mike McColl Jones, Ernie Sigley and Bert Newton. This Nine News bulletin was broadcast in Sydney on 25 May 2005.
Having been very unwell for some years, the news of Graham's passing was not a complete surprise. The media had previously reported him sustaining significant injuries in separate falls at his home in Canyonleigh, NSW. Adding to this was a pre-existing diabetes condition and a sustained intake of cigarettes and alcohol which, ignoring doctors’ orders, he continued to enjoy.
Close friends Tony Sattler and Noeline Brown organised for the ailing Graham to spend his final days at Kenilworth Gardens Retirement Village in Bowral, NSW. His passing was reported across the country, precipitating renewed interest in his life and career. Indicative of his status as a media icon, a highly publicised funeral celebration organised a week later was broadcast nationally on three television networks.
'What motivates me in life? It’s to keep breathing. I wake up in the morning and say “I’ve made it again, let’s rejoice". I do not think I go intellectually into what’s it all about. I’m a fairly simple person.' (Kennedy speaking to Mark Lawrence of The Age - Green Guide, 25 May 1978)
Notes by Simon Smith
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.