Mike Preston, the boxer turned pop star turned TV host and actor, has died at age 93.
Born in London, he was a professional boxer and working an animation cameraman before a turn as a pop singer. He visited Australia in 1965 as a singer on the Gene Pitney tour and two years later was back for an eight-week season of nightclub shows. He was then invited to guest host In Melbourne Tonight, a gig that led to a contract with the Nine Network and becoming the show’s regular Monday night host. He went on to win the TV Week Logie Award for Best Male Personality In Victoria two years in a row.
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After the demise of In Melbourne Tonight, despite a falling out with Nine he returned to host two variety specials. He also had a short stint co-hosting the Sydney-based music variety show Rose And Crown for TEN10.
He scored his acting debut when a movie producer visiting Australia saw him on television and signed him up for the leading role in the crime drama Stoney, to be filmed in the Philippines. He later recalled to TV Times that he was assured not to be worried about his lack of acting experience, but he had ‘the look’ that they wanted. The role gave him an interest in acting and on his return to Australia he joined the cast of Homicide as “trendy new cop”, Detective Bob Delaney. “It’s a lot more hard work than doing In Melbourne Tonight!,” he told TV Week in 1972.
Further acting credits followed in Silent Number, Rush and Tandarra before a two-week guest role as Father John Kramer in the ABC serial Bellbird. The character proved popular enough that the role got extended to 18 months. “If I were a priest, Father Kramer is the type of priest I would like to be,” he told TV Times in 1975. “In spite of the obvious difference that he is a priest and I am not, there are quite a few similarities between us. Like him, I’m interested in all forms of sport, have an eye for a pretty girl and am not adverse to a glass of beer.”
In 1976 he was signed by the Reg Grundy Organisation to host charades game show The Celebrity Game, which ran for two years on the 0-10 Network. This was followed by another Grundy game show, The Better Sex, co-hosting with former Miss World, Ann Sidney.
He then starred in the telemovie All At Sea and made a guest appearance in Chopper Squad.
His next major role was as a prison inmate in the drama series Punishment. Described as a “male version” of the popular series Prisoner, it did not renewed beyond its first season. He then starred in the ABC series MPSIB (Missing Persons Special Investigation Branch) and in the Australian-Disney co-production Five Mile Creek, filmed in Sydney, before heading to the US.
He went on to guest roles in series including Bring ’em Back Alive, The New Mike Hammer, The A-Team, Cover Up, Hot Pursuit, Airwolf, Remington Steele, Scarecrow And Mrs King, Hunter, Fame, The Facts Of Life, Superboy, Alien Nation, Jake And The Fatman, Highlander, Baywatch Nights and Law And Order.
Movie credits included The Last Of The Knucklemen, Mad Max 2 and Duet For Four.
Mike Preston is survived by his wife Josie and two children.
Source: Variety, TV Tonight, IMDB. TV Times, 22 February 1975, 12 June 1976. TV Guide, 20 November 1976. TV Week, 11 March 1972, 28 February 1981. The Australian Women’s Weekly TV World, 11 March 1981.
