Biography

Gordon Currie made his broadcast debut at 12, and performed on radio and as a singer and dancer in night-clubs in Sydney throughout his teens and early 20s, as well as later publishing and editing a weekly newspaper, The Enterprise, in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

As a war correspondent during World War II, Gordon Currie wrote stories from all across the Pacific theater. When he recorded Christmas greetings from hundreds of Australian prisoners of war, Currie arranged for them to be played non-stop for several days by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission), allowing their families to learn of their survival and hear their voices for the first time in years. He often referred to those recordings as the most important accomplishment of his correspondent career. Returning to Japan after the conclusion of World War II, he became the first Westerner to record the voice of Emperor Hirohito. He also made his way to Hiroshima just weeks after the atomic bomb was dropped by riding in with the Graves Registration unit.

Being a witness to history placed Gordon Currie often in the right place at the right time. While covering the Communist trials as a newspaper reporter in the 1950s, Currie repeatedly ran in and out of the courtroom to draw sketches of the accused, since drawing in court proceedings was not yet allowed. Finally, the trial judge said he knew what he was doing, so just go ahead and sit and draw. The permission set a precedent that eventually led to today's practice of artists in the courtroom.

He also covered the John F. Kennedy assassination aftermath in Dallas in November 1963. The Police Chief, knowing that Currie had been made an honorary citizen of Texas and of Dallas previously, asked what he wanted, and Currie replied that he wanted a cell in the jail overlooking Jack Ruby. The Chief agreed, and Currie's drawings of Ruby, sitting with his mattress folded into a seat, writing his memoirs on jail notepaper, were printed in newspapers around the world. Later, in the United Press reenactment of the assassination, Currie took Governor John Connelly's place in the front passenger seat of the famous photograph taken through the rifle scope.

Gordon Currie was renowned as an entertainment reporter and was heard on US and Australian radio right up until his death in December 2005. He is remembered for his work with Bert Newton on Melbourne radio 3UZ from 1976-1983 and later on 3DB from 1988-1989 with 'Hollywood - On The Line', broadcast twice weekly. This radio segment morphed into a regular segment on television, broadcast via satellite from the US to Australia from 1980 on The Don Lane Show (1975) Gordon Currie had first appeared on US television in 1948 in New York and his his own daily program in Los Angeles in 1950, "Currie's Corner." Though most of his television appearances were live and no longer exist, he can be seen with Groucho Marx in 1953 on You Bet Your Life (1950) on one of the series' most memorable shows, featuring the first appearance of Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez.

His roommate when covering the Japanese War Trials was famed photographer Alfred Eisenstadt.