Actor Ross Higgins dies at 85

Kingswood Country star Ross Higgins dies
By Philippa McDonald




Ross Higgins, the former star of Kingswood Country, who died today aged 86, has been remembered as a "vast talent".

Family friend and former colleague Tony Sattler said Higgins died in hospital and had been unwell for sometime.

"He has been in hospital for the past few weeks," he said

Mr Sattler said the actor, who played Ted Bullpitt on the popular Australian sitcom from 1980 to 1984, had been devoted to his craft.

"He was totally committed to comedy and in his early years he had worked in radio," he said
Higgins' co-star and colleague Lex Marinos, who played Bruno in Kingswood Country, described the actor as a "vast talent" who in life was very different to his greatly loved character.


"He was the complete antithesis to Ted Bullpitt," he said

"He would get so embarrassed about some of the things he had to say and do that he would apologise before, during and after he was saying them."
Marinos told the ABC Higgins' career started as "Ross Higgins, the boy singer" and "he had perfect pitch, he was a wonderful singer".

"Ross was unique — he was part of that generation who moved from vaudeville and the golden years of radio," he said.

"Television destroyed many of those careers, but Ross was one of the few who made it through and transferred those extraordinary skills to TV."

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"It started to show that not all Australians were from Anglo Celtic backgrounds," he said.
"It exposed sexism, religious bigotry and racism that were firmly held attitudes by many Australians at the time.

"Somehow he was a character that was ludicrous, but it became so popular some people would say, go Ted."

Laurel McGowan, who played Ted Bullpitt's daughter Greta in the series, told the ABC her screen father's character was "a bit of a dinosaur being dragged into the 20th century".

"He was however a person who was tolerant — not a bigoted, ocker character — he was very much more urbane and a lovely gentleman," she said.

Ms McGowan said Higgins was unaffected by his own fame and did "not [get] caught up with egos and publicity".

Higgins is survived by his wife Nadine and four adult children.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-07/kingswood-country-star-ross-higgins-dead-aged-86/7913758