Paul Hogan

Paul Hogan was born in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. He moved to Granville in Western Sydney at a young age and worked as a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.\n', ' Hogan\'s first public appearance was on Australian television, the Nine Network\'s amateur talent program New Faces in 1971. Hogan had observed to his Harbour Bridge workmates that the program\'s entertainment value relied significantly on the judges ridiculing and belittling the performers, and suggested the judges deserved similar treatment. Hogan inveigled his way onto the program by claiming to be a "tap-dancing knife-thrower". Hogan appeared on stage in his work boots, holding elaborate prop \'knives\' and proceeded to make a series of jokes at the judges\' expense; he finished by performing a rudimentary shuffle and throwing the knives onto the floor. Strong positive response from the viewing public saw Hogan invited back for repeated performances on New Faces; in another of these, he proposed to "play the shovels", which consisted of making a series of jokes before banging two shovels together a few times. Hogan\'s natural ability as a comedic performer attracted the attention of Mike Willesee, host of Nine\'s news magazine program A Current Affair. Willesee offered Hogan regular appearances on the show, during which Hogan would make humorous comment on some issue of the day. During this time Hogan befriended Current Affair producer John Cornell, who became Hogan\'s manager and business partner.\n', ' Hogan followed this with his own comedy sketch program The Paul Hogan Show, which he produced and wrote, and in which he played characters with Cornell and Delvene Delaney. The series, which ran for 60 episodes between 1973 and 1984, was popular in his native country and South Africa, and showcased his trademark lighthearted but laddish ocker humour. Hogan won the 1973 TV Week Logie Award for \'Best New Talent\'. The early series was on Channel Seven and by 1975, it was screened on Channel Nine where it remained until the end of 1984.\n', '