Roger Climpson OAM, best remembered as newsreader and presenter for the Seven Network, has died earlier this week at the age of 93.
English-born, he studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before coming with his parents to Australia in the early 1950s. He gained work as a radio actor and presenter before making his television debut in the ABC play Roundabout. A chance meeting with newsreader Brian Henderson led him to a trial run at TCN9, which went on for six years. Starting as a general announcer, he worked up to hosting a daytime show, Rendezvous With Roger, appearing on The Lucky Show and The Bobby Limb Late Show, and reading news bulletins.
He appeared again in a number of ABC plays and scored a couple of guest roles in Homicide.
In 1968 he joined ATN7 in Sydney, becoming the station’s chief newsreader for the next 13 years.
During the 1970s, as well as reading Seven National News, he was the founding presenter of daytime news program Eleven AM and hosted This Is Your Life and the Sammy Awards, a rival to the TV Week Logie Awards.
In the 1980s he co-hosted Going Strong, a magazine program aimed at seniors, before returning to the Seven news desk in 1989. He was forced to temporarily retire in 1994 due to a diagnosis of prostate cancer. He later returned to television as presenter of Australia’s Most Wanted.
He was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia in 2004 for service to the media, particularly through the Christian Broadcasting Association. At Sydney Christian radio station Hope 103.2 (formerly 2CBA) he held many roles including regular on-air presenter, Board Member and Chairman of Hope Media. In 2014 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Christian Media Australia.
Roger Climpson was married to wife Claire, who died last month. This week would have marked their 70th wedding anniversary.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 29 September 1958, 11 May 1959, 18 January 1968, 28 November 1968. Forty Years Of Television: The Story Of ATN7, 1996. TV Week, 19 February 1994. Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Hope Media, Seven News.
