Career
Gray was a regular panellist on Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks in 1977-1978. He had earlier taken a straight dramatic role as publican Bunny Howard in the early episodes of soap opera The Young Doctors in 1976. He left his role in The Young Doctors after his initial 13-week contract expired in order to work on Blankety Blanks. Kennedy himself had convinced Gray to do Blankety Blanks Gray had been receiving $100 a day for The Young Doctors, with Blankety Blanks paying $45 an episode this represented a pay cut. Later Gray signed with agent Harry M Miller who negotiated the increased pay rate of $75 per episode of Blankety Blanks which remained until the series ended.
Gray hosted an Australian version of the American game show Beat The Clock called Free for All in 1973.
Gray was appointed Court Jester to 1977 King of Moomba Mickey Mouse (controversial choice with some Melburnians preferring a 'home-grown' Blinky Bill).
Gray later hosted the celebrity game show Celebrity Tattle Tales from 1979-1980, and Play Your Cards Right from 1984-1985.
According to Gray's autobiography 'It's Funny Being Ugly' on 31 May 2005, Gray was not invited to speak at Kennedy's funeral, and did not know where the funeral was to be held. He had to call presenter Philip Brady for details.
Gray was portrayed by Angus Sampson in the 2007 television movie The King, about the life of Graham Kennedy.
On 19 October 2011, Gray appeared in a comedy sketch for the ABC1 show Hamster Wheel.
Read more about this topic: Ugly Dave Gray
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)