Actor Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart on Home & Away brightens Coast charity function

A Home & Away superstar, famous for his “flamin’ galah” catchphrase, has brought smiles to some special Gold Coasters. Read what he did:

The man famous for playing Australia’s big-hearted grouch on TV has brought smiles to the faces of charity-minded Gold Coasters.

Ray Meagher, who has spent 37 years playing Alf Stewart on hit soapie Home and Away, was among the special guests at the Star Studded Lunch – raising money for Alzheimers – at Shuck in Main Beach on Friday.

Multi-talented Mr Meagher – who has a long string of theatre, movie and TV credits and also played rugby for Queensland, including a match against France in the 1960s – humbly said he believed he was a special guest to “just answer a few questions”.

Margo Mott, Ray Meagher and Dianne Cant at the Star Studded Lunch at Shuck Restaurant on Tedder Ave for Gold Coast at Large. Picture, Portia Large.

Asked if he had anything left on his to-do list, he said: “There’s always a big list of stuff to do, but to be honest I’m pretty happy. I was lucky enough to fall into a lot of theatre when I started and then I did a fair bit of television in terms of one hour a week stuff, movies, all of that sort of gear. That was all before Home and Away came along.

“Home and Away has been going for 37 years this year, so I had 20 years before that of doing a lot of other stuff. Then during Home and Away – I was lucky enough to go over to the UK to play Captain Hook in Peter Pan or Abanazar in Aladdin – so it’s been good.”

On Home and Away’s enduring success, he said: “There’s a lot of contributing factors.

Debbie Miller and Ray Meagher at the Star Studded Lunch at Shuck Restaurant on Tedder Ave for Gold Coast at Large. Picture, Portia Large.

Certainly the setting doesn’t hurt, being a country town on the beach. We’ve also been blessed with pretty good actors along the way – some have gone off to Hollywood and some of the ones that haven’t are every bit as good as the ones that have. So we’ve been very lucky.”

Mr Meagher, who went to school on the Gold Coast and Brisbane before moving to Sydney in 1972 said he was still a passionate Queensland supporter especially during State of Origin.

“I always support Queensland in State of Origin, and more so than that, I’m a big supporter of the Queensland Reds, where I was lucky enough to play a few games a long time ago,” he said.

Australian country music luminary Brian Cadd also performed at the lunch.