Roger Climpson

Roger Climpson OAM (born 18 October 1931) is an English-born Australian retired media personality who served a lengthy career in both radio and television, as a journalist and reporter, announcer, newsreader, weather presenter and host. He started his career as an actor in radio, but also appeared in theatre and television productions, post his mainstream media career, he went into christian broadcasting.

Climpson is best known for his time as news presenter with both the Nine Network and Seven Network for Seven News in the 1980s and 1990s and for his hosting duties on shows such as the local version of This Is Your Life and true-crime series Australia's Most Wanted.

Climpson was born on 18 October 1931,^[1] in Peterborough, England. The son of a butcher, he aimed to become a pilot in the Royal Air Force, until a rugby union accident at the age of 14 punctured his lung, leading him to take up acting instead of flying. He emigrated to Australia in 1949, and met his future wife Claire at a Christmas party in 1952.^[2]

Climpson started his career locally in theatre radio appearing in numerous radio series including Caltex theatre, The General Motors Hour, When a Girl Marries and Life Can Be Beautiful and Portia Faces Life as well as narrator of Tarzan Kingdom of the Apes, he also appeared in numerous theatre plays at the ABC

Climpson had guest roles in early television serials like Homicide and You Can't See Round Corners.^[3]

He began his television career from its inception in 1956, working at Channel Nine as an announcer, weatherman and newsreader. He got the job at Nine after asking his friend Brian Henderson to have a word with the head of the network, Bruce Gyngell. During his time at Nine, he hosted two programs of his own: Rendezvous with Roger and The House and Garden Show.^[2]

He left Channel Nine in 1965 after chairman Sir Frank Packer refused to grant him a five-pound pay rise.^[4] He returned to acting in plays such as The Big Killing (1965) in which Filmink described him as "having the time of his life".^[5]

Climpson found himself briefly unemployed and worked at his father's butcher shop, until he was asked to fill a temporary newsreader role at Channel Seven – where he stayed for fifteen years.

In 1977 Climpson presented the afternoon shift on Sydneys 2GB

In 1977, he began hosting This Is Your Life until returning to newsreading in 1978. In 1982, Climpson retired from television work, but returned to the station in 1989 as anchor of Sydney's Seven News, until a diagnosis of prostate cancer in November 1994 forced his temporary retirement.^[2] Ann Sanders replaced him the following year.

In 1997, he was host of Australia's Most Wanted, which lasted until 1998 when he retired from television. although post-retirement briefly returned to host to a TV documentary in 2015.

Climpson has been heavily involved in Christian radio broadcasting from 1995 and 2004 and served as chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Association Ltd. licensee of Sydney Christian radio station Hope 103.2

On Australia Day 2004 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).^[6]

Selected credits

• Roger Climpson at IMDb
• Roger Climpson profile at Celebrity Speakers