How Aussie rigger Paul Hogan became Crocodile Dundee: A Fortunate Life — Part 1 | Australian Story

[Music] oh we're on a tight budget now let's go talk to Hoyt ah that's a good trick ah 30 25 the Paul Hogan special replay to be advised we've tried to put together a show here tonight that's that has the pace excitement and glamour of the ABC weather forecast he was original an individual authentic he had this appeal that was touched everybody from eight to 80 [Music] it was the realest thing on television and it was just being himself what I'm saying to you is you have to come inside my head come inside there's what's a root Buddhist ordination of companies why do you want a nation of portholes there's plenty of Hogans out there in the pubs and I tell you what they're all right I think he represented us Australians beautifully he was funny like we all wanted to be funny [Music] there's no wider describe it as anything other than sexist but they were sexist times you wouldn't get away with it now no way it was a bit sexist and a bit racist well it's really funny mixed bag as you can see today caused mostly by this cold front up here in the Gulf it was no malice in it usually the butt of the joke ended up being me he's got a knife that's a knife when Dundee happened he was a superstar just kids having fun and how do you top that and there's this pressure to top that a [ __ ] you know whatever you do Nexus is doomed to failure but I'm not allowed to have regrets if I have regrets some hairy thunderous should come down from the sky smack way down so a much like you want in your life [Applause] ladies and gentlemen [Music] [Applause] do you think he was the first time I was aware of Paul Hague - when I was directing new faces right back when oh there was 40 50 years ago whatever new faces was a talent show that started in the 1960s hosted at first by Frank Wilson and it's sort of the Australia's Got Talent of its day but judges were really mean I went on new faces to take the mickey out of it one of the few people that ever went on my Talent Quest had no intention or desire to women to get on the show in those days you wrote in a letter dear Sirs I am Australia's leading tap-dancing knife thrower he got sick of watching the judges strip the contestants into pieces in a mean way that really riled him [Music] when it comes to the part where they judge it and I said I don't they dead I know I'm good and sort of walked off and that was that's what began my career the fact that Australian audience tell of his knowledge to you I didn't care when Paul was applying to go on new faces and he thought where can I say I'm from our Lightning Ridge and so from that I think it got established that Paul was born in Lightning Ridge where he was actually born in in Sydney I wasn't born in Lightning Ridge but I got some lovely presents from the people of lightning reach and that parently there was some place up there they were saying this is where I used to live for their tourism so I wasn't gonna shoot that down and that becomes the myth people oh no no no no he was born Lightning Ridge when I argue with you about it I was a Westie that's where I grew up Granville Salora bankstown Greenacre didset Westie I've got a younger brother and an older sister my dad was in the army and then after the war he's chief purchasing officer or something for army canteen my mum was a very self-contained steady woman never seemed to worry about anything except she was worried but I was on television and I wasn't dressed nice you know no fashion ladies while she lived to be hundred and one nothing but now yeah we were sort of a regular family for that beer I was never the class clown but yes I was a bit of a know-all on a bit of a troublemaker ass Tara yeah and the worst thing happened they brought in IQ tests and I had to do it so I did it it turned out you know I have this really high IQ so I was constantly under pressure to be to leave and it was just good at doing IQ tests I'm not really clever that's what I'm good at if I couldn't wait to get our school and get out into the real world did you have any real ideas as to entering any sort of trade or professional no whatever come along well what came along well naturally when you leave school they're always hundreds of people after you want you to work from you know after your wonderful jobs like sweeping the streets cleaning sewers and things like that my first job 15 years old was apprentice molder which is a terrible job like working in Hill it gave me a hard body and a lot of blackheads that's what I got out of the foundry and then I finally walked away from that before I finished the apprenticeship [Applause] I was living in gran Berlin and I was a larrikin as all my friends were nothing spectacular I had a bad temper I don't know why it's just things that set me off and violently I'm in a awful movie I had on channel 7 which was supposed to be me they had the kid acting was me from normal that really happened but I threw it over the fence Warner that wouldn't start but the funny part to me was the embarrassment of going in next door and and asking her kind of get in her mouth but I didn't put that in the movie they missed all the human are there was just a teenage think that having a bad temper that's one ended boxer and that took it away it's sort of self-discipline stop being bad tempered it was the best thing could have happened but I found me a niche in life as a swimming pool attendant I thought that was me first important job anyway poled is to be a lifeguard and he used to like showing off to all the girls and he met no lean that way through the swimming pool and I was a massive flirt I liked her and she liked me and we got married I was a dad at 19 I actually had three sons on the time I was 22 sorry to grow up very fast but I sort of dug it and I loved it we grew up together mmm me and my kids we had a little two-bedroom house silora the three boys were in together and mum and dad burn together very suburban dad was like one of the kids really so he was sort of mums fourth child growing it up settling down on the Harbour Bridge and it was work like you know getting up at 4:00 to 6:00 in the morning and get on a bus and a train and then go to work and sort of come home and kids we play in the backyard football and stuff like that we used to go and visit him for lunch I'm going to take us down and she'd point up where he was it was financially always a struggle but didn't know any other life so didn't have any problems with it [Music] Paul Hogan's big break came when he was invited to appear on a Current Affair which was Mike Willis's new show that he had started with a journalist called John Cornell welcome to account of here because John came from a newspaper background he was used to working with a newspaper cartoonist and so with a Current Affair he was looking for the TV equivalent and they looked and looked and searched and tried and found nothing and then a journalist said I saw the guy and I said really yeah he was on new faces they all looked at that I said yeah this is the guy we're looking for someone to give the man in the streets opinion you know and I was a genuine man in the street and he were just coming after work on the bridge and very casually get in front of the camera and do his piece what are the particular qualities that you look for in a man and the to admire and I a mile I like a man to be strong on the outside like you and gentle on the inside and I was a neighbor a script was most well I thought I'd say and then whatever come out in front of the camera that's what we had to hear this is a frame in goes to where at seven o'clock under if you keep your hand off me Lee please follow me they got tremendous reaction from audiences you know the letters came flowing in and straight away you know people could see that this guy really had something it's been extraordinary sowed in your life when you were working on the bridge and we're at the same time one the same term and national television celebrity that was a bit of embarrassment I was still sort of climbing up and down the cords and over the top of the arch and lumpen gear all day and people driving that car so there he is [Music] so they have to sort of keep me in places where I couldn't be seen from the public I'd be on national television one night expanding my views taken their ratings up and the next day I'd be on the train with the audience you know giving me advice that poor and famous acts John canals are really clever men and he guided Paul's career there was no end to John's vision and we just sort of hit it off straight away we were the same type of person and he said you know you shouldn't be doing this you should have your own show you know that stuff you think about started writing it down and I think if John didn't come into Paul's life Paula just lazily crashed through and he'd probably still be on the bridge he knew what to do with me no one else did he always said from day one that less is more he always said that you had to always leave the audience wanting more and being a suave sophisticated man about town I thought I did the job with a bit of you know polish it touch the class it was really John Cornell that decided that Paul had to be presented under the best circumstances with the biggest budgets that started with the wind field ends don't saw the great juxtaposition between the working-class man and some very classy projects what it did was beautifully poke fun at pomposity and it really made Winfield which is a cheaper brand of cigarettes so pitched at people who weren't rich feel good about buying it I regret the cigarette one but I did smoke them and you know I'm just and then those days doctors recommend Chesterfield cigarettes were good for us so as we knew well sort England's problems in about two days wet and we'll have a bit of fun yeah John always saw himself somebody behind the scenes right and then he was roped into being this drop character on camera they thought well let's do some Hogan specials in that format of a roving camera or a crew on the road a lot of spontaneity well there it is might that's her ass what do you think everybody beautiful Italy hey it's your big what which he had for breakfast me I probably have a big feed of prawns and a couple of cans like everyone else was bad first one was loads in Singapore and then we did London we said very funny because we had money reminder that we had Germaine Greer and a strop sister terrific hey dad you're not the first year we're in Lana to say that either so we had a broad appeal I'm sorry Daryl it was decided that in Hogan making the transition out of a current affair it would be through the company that John Cornell had formed with Clyde Packer and my Quilici they were doing Hogan in London special and the talk was already well and truly underway regarding a variety show and all of a sudden there is this massive nuclear explosion so Willacy inferred to Claude Packer that John had misspent production money funds which he hadn't Clyde was really angry with John and he was I was in the room - Stan and Eric Steven and he was starting to do this finger-point think it was close to John or not I know John long to know my cell phone so any minute now that fingers gonna touch John and John's gonna go for him John left across the room and grabbed Clyde by the kaftan you know at the back of the night boy and said that's an effing lie and you effing know it so take it back and Clyde said took it but he said it louder I didn't hear you I made him say it again and he said it again that was pretty much the end of the relationship between John Cornell and Willis and Packer and then that left Paul Hogan and John Cornell out there on their own we had nothing I mean John didn't have a heap of money in like we were cast adrift and and there's yeah there's nothing like that sort of adversity to bring out the best in people when we fill out with Clyde Packer we went to channel 7 and had a good time there and then Kari took over and said come on son come back to Lauren a genuine stuff down beautiful night it's a wonderful thing preserving wildlife in the Mac strop was a schoolyard character of Jones and he was virginal chronic masturbator one-track mind probably every teenage boy in Australia could relate to straw but he had this beautiful innocence about him either he was a hell of a party man wouldn't you know have a good time [Applause] strop was like the eternal clown hiding behind a perverts facade I wouldn't trust you he was banned from our house hi Adobe how are you fine thank you don't mean to me when you parade before the judges what do you think about the least possible thing I try to have my mind just just concentrating on what I'm doing and that's all I was what you would refer to these days as a slashy model slash beauty queen / TV presenter / general dogsbody she was the Queensland weather girl and I met her in some sort of television function and I said to John yeah I've found the girl for you because he was a terrible pants man johnny was all over the place there was a match made naming him until vain John and I met in March of 1975 in a hotel in Paddington when he approached me and said you don't know me I'm John Cornell would you like to be on the Paul Hogan show I said yes please so he'd waited til the boy I was with went to the bathroom and took it from there and so by mage honor there were a couple Penelope I begin my mother was mortified I'm dating John Cornell who I'm done dating strop but then she met John and realized that there was this genius intelligent mind behind that clowns facade I can get by with that I can get by with that much of a brain I can get by with that what makes for someone as pretty as she was she also had no known vanity attached there was real affection between delle Vigne John and Paul and it showed in the performances and assured in their attitudes they just had fun doing it nobody was ever ever stressed they just loved it their comfort in the material that was written they played it out the deal I had with Gary Packer was when I was thinking but not funny ideas and put her together or put a shower and you know and if I don't think any of next month or the month off there won't be a show and he was happy with that was the you know they never got beat in the writings that's why [Music] some of the Paul Hogan shows dated because obviously times have changed women are really there only in the way that they are seen by men so it's a very male gaze the holeshot [Music] but it was the 70s and anything went and III think if some of the clothing that I wore on that show I'd be mortified if my own daughters got up and did television wearing double denim the sketches were designed not for you to pay them on the girls but to show what idiots we men can make of ourselves so for an attractive woman [Music] so it is a bit sexist and I apologize to the men the trouble with that kind of humor is that it does actually give permission for men to behave like that nobody was aware of that at the time it wasn't intentional I get that but I think it did give a kind of permission to treat women generally as tits and bums what about the effect on your family your wife and children has it changed them at all to suddenly be the the wife and children of the famous Paul Haggard certain loss of privacy but you know my kids come after themselves obviously everybody's life changed everybody's life changes with any degree of celebrity and you don't wish it on your children [Music] the big thing as a kid I suppose was we moved we were entrenched in the western suburbs in Chihuahua laughter there and then just remembered that we were gonna move away from all our mates and go and live in Mossman which is someplace I've never heard of and didn't particularly want to go to but it was part from that for all my kids then it was um but you know thrust into a limelight that they didn't invite so we know I kept it as much as we could left it at the gate [Music] well the first day we change schools I got hauled up by the teacher and made to stand up in front of everyone get told I wasn't going to be specially treated so obviously I was already being specially treated for not doing anything and so I hated that and then everything became you know Oh is he really your father and from what I saw he maintained a very normal household as did Molly and so even though Nolan would love to go to the Logies and all the special events they didn't seek the limelight was more about family she was a terrific mom she was Carol Brady I suppose I was that sort of thing and I was itwas chops on Monday sausages Tuesday we all that we knew what was coming I think cuz they were kids when Paul was still working on the bridge they're still very much that very grounded family from the suburbs in Sydney and have always all had very real jobs and show biz has been this crazy thing dead does from time to time goodnight what I might be able to see America from my beer just across the Pacific you know looks like a boatload of your countrymen coming in there now the tourism ads came about because John and Paul were walking past Australia House in London and saw a picture of a koala that was our poster campaign for tourism and we're a bit disappointed and thought they could do a much better job you're gonna have to learn to say goodbye because every day's a good day in Australia can I love and now's was the campaign that said you know we'd love to see you we're good we're fun people come down here and give him an invitation that's why I went through the roof Australia is where the Sun shines on thousands of miles of the world's great beaches the deal that John made for those commercials was not the John be paid or Paul be paid but was that they put the highest production quality into the commercials and that they bought prime-time television in America come on come on say g'day I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie the shrimp on the barbie tourism ads are the single best tourism campaign Australia has ever done to this day and I think they established the Australian character on the international stage tell them it's where the Americas companies it was certainly in John's mind that the way to get a movie up in America would be for people to recognize Paul Hogan's face Paul had been thinking about the character of Nick Dundee I think for a while I just got bored of writing sketches I'd like to do something last longer than four minutes and I started writing a sketch when I was in New York doing a tourism promotion and by the time I got back from there the sketch was about a half an hour long John was doing the World Series cricket stuff dinner and took it to him and said what do you think should all how do we great we'll make it and we did he was raised in the land down under where a man thinks on his feet speaks with his fists and lives by his wits first time director first time producer first time lead actor first time leading lady but they were backed by the experience of Russell Boyd behind camera and all of his incredible crew we had to audition actresses to play the part of Sue Paul wasn't interested in who that person might be as it turns out of course it was Linda Kozlowski she came out to Australia not really knowing what she was getting into [Music] he thought I was a little bit all I remember sighs he's always a little bit aloof or a little bit closed surcharge Newsday the first time that met was at a rehearsal that I was running Linda wanted rehearse Paul didn't it was a very difficult day Linda and I were staying at the hotel the same hotel together Paul was living at home and Linda basically wanted to go home well I hope you're not gonna be the strong silent type to talk about yourself favorite subject great she went to Julliard and two most famous theatrical school in America's he went there on a scholarship so she was already in a really good actress I was a sort of like make it up as I go along no common sense you're a woman you're a reporter that makes her that because busybody in the world as it turns out this rather difficult association manifested itself into a closer and closer and closer relationship through the movie and we happen to shoot the whole movie in sequence so as the movie went on I understood each other better better better so in a strange way a lot of what we saw on air was true life Linda came to me at one point and was worried about it because she knew Paul was married but it was unstoppable when Crocodile Dundee premiered I was worried that it was gonna be embarrassing good old undo just come out and here he was in a hospital bed maybe not going to survive I'm not a great husband I'm good early I've got five children to think about my wife and I separated one on there with Linda Kozlowski and that's the sort of full story was it wham bam and the priest wanted to destroy him I want a Clavin heads I really do unfortunately jogging in his heyday got early signs of Parkinson's disease it was kept low-key about of course he didn't want to become the Parkinson's guy you know the ITA alleges he owes millions of dollars of unpaid taxes yeah it did make me angry my bournemouth bump somebody so I haven't really got it out of my system yet you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 1,177,494

Rating: 4.8557839 out of 5

Keywords: news, abc, abc news, australia, Australian Story, Paul Hogan, Crocodile Dundee, Crocodile Dundee movie, 80s films, 80s movies, Mick Dundee, Paramount Films, That’s Not a Knife, Crocodile Dundee film, Crocodile Dundee today, Crocodile Dundee story, Noelene Hogan, Todd Hogan, abc news in-depth, paul hogan, mick dundee, crocodile dundee, linda kozlowski

Id: VcQbxzJm2EQ

Length: 29min 17sec (1757 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 16 2019