Broadcaster Ernie Sigley dies aged 82 after battling Alzheimer’s disease
Denise Drysdale has revealed her saddest moment with TV partner Ernie Sigley came five years before his death from Alzheimer’s.
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Denise Drysdale has revealed she knew she’d lost her beloved stage partner Ernie Sigley five years ago.
The long-time pair on the small screen and pop charts took the Australian entertainment industry by storm in their heyday and were still performing together on stage well into the 2000s.
“I heard the news a couple of days ago but I was thinking about it — I lost Ernie when we couldn’t work together on stage,’’ Drysdale told Studio 10.
“We were still doing floor shows up until five years ago and then he’d be on stage and he was starting to get forgetful then and I knew then it was the start of it.
“That was sadder for me, to lose that because we had so much fun on camera it’s unbelievable. And off camera.”
She added: “We had so many laughs and so many things come to mind. He’ll be up there giving them hell now.”
Tributes have poured in for the “little Aussie battler” who passed away on Sunday aged 82 after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Sigley died surrounded by his wife Glenys and their four children, Matthew, Guy, David and Emma.
Sigley and Drysdale worked together on TV variety shows, and had a pop hit, Hey Paula.
She revealed they decided to give the proceeds from the sales of Hey Paula to Lifeline. It ended up selling 100,000 copies. “It was so many in those days, we could have bought a house,’’ she said.
On Monday Drysdale shared a heartfelt tribute.
“We’ve lost one of the all-time greats of Australian TV and radio today,” Drysdale said in a statement.
“Ernie Sigley was one of a kind. He was enormously generous to me. In fact, if it wasn’t for Ernie, I doubt that my career would have turned out the way it did. He always just let me be myself and that is the greatest gift of all.
“I will cherish the memories of all the mischief we got up to together. He still makes me laugh just thinking about him. Love and respect, dear Ernie. Vale Ernie Sigley.”
Sigley’s lose friend Denis Walter said one of Melbourne’s “great characters” had been lost.
“The west will be feeling very sad,” he said.
“We knew it was going to come one day and we had such fond memories.
“We’ve lost one of our great characters. I met him in the ’70s and he was one of the people who really believed in me.
“I was lucky enough pre-Covid to visit one or two times a year.
“Even though he couldn’t speak that well he flirted with my wife Annette with his eyes. He had no interest in me whatsoever.
“It was a very difficult time and we felt privileged to be there with Glenys.
“He was in very good care, the cheekiness in his eyes was still there. To see someone so gregarious unable to put his thoughts into words was sad.
“He used to be scared to sleep, it was one of those funny little things that he’d say, ‘I don’t like going to sleep in case I don’t wake up’.
“When we did concert tours together he had this insecurity about him that it wouldn’t be a good show. It was the same script every time and we used to argue all the time.
“I was like the fourth son. We panned each other for hours and one day he got sick of it and went and sat at the other end of the house and (his sons) Matt, Guy and David, we all just sat there giggling.”
TV icon Bert Newton also paid tribute.
“Ernie and I started out together as young boys. He was one of a kind, had a fabulous career and our love goes out to his family, he’ll be sadly missed.”
Vale Ernie Sigley. Each day at two minutes past midday he’d tell me what I’d done wrong, launch into that magnificent giggle, and show me the door. A complex and fascinating character.
— Neil Mitchell (@3AWNeilMitchell) August 15, 2021
Television and radio star Ernie Sigley dies after Alzheimer's battle. Vale Ernie - I love you and will miss your generosity- thx for my first big break when you auditioned me for adelaide tonight in 1972 - love to Glenys and the family https://t.co/Q3fki7WuXJ
— Mark Holden (@HoldenBrosTC) August 15, 2021
Sad to hear the passing of Ernie Sigley. He was always supportive of me as a young performer. My thoughts to his family and many, many colleagues
— David Campbell OAM (@DavidCampbell73) August 15, 2021
Singing star Normie Rowe knew Sigley well and described his death as “the passing of an era”.
“Ernie was a long-time part of the landscape of the Australian entertainment industry and for a whole generation or two that lived with him on television,” he said.
“He was such a fun person. He wasn’t the Saturday matinee idol sort of person, he had a good face for radio, but he never forgot that he was so well connected with the general public. He didn’t look like he was from the posh side of tracks and that’s one of the things that always made him successful.”
Entertainment reporter Peter Ford said Sigley held a unique position in the Australian entertainment industry.
“His knockabout larrikin style was unique. Very few performers can get away with no research and no rehearsal yet still deliver something special. Ernie did.”
TV host John Burgess said: “What a loveable larrikin, worked on “Ernie” in 76 on ATV-O as his sidekick & in 84 ended up doing Wheel of Fortune after he’d established it. We played a fair bit, never forget days on the farm with laughs late into the night. Thinking of Glenys & family … RIP mate”.
Sigley was a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter and the club paid tribute: “We send our condolences to the family of Ernie Sigley, who has sadly passed away. A loyal Bulldog through and through”.
Broadcaster and Countdown star Gavin Wood worked with Sigley on Channel 9’s short-lived Ernie Sigley Show.
“Ernie was a great ringmaster,” Wood said. “He was absolutely incredible. Cheeky, too. He made you keep your wits about you, and he challenged you. He was a good bloke.”
Radio and TV broadcaster John Blackman also paid tribute to his friend.
“Vale Ernie Sigley, radio and television star. Ernie Sigley has died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Condolences to Glenys and family.”
A Channel 9 spokesman said: “Today we have lost ‘the little Aussie battler’ Erin Sigley and our heartfelt sympathy goes to his family and friends. Ernie entertained millions of Australians. He was an Australian TV pioneer, who began his career in SA and at Nine a man who brightened our lives and brought laughter into our homes, we remember him fondly”.
ERNIE SIGLEY A LITTLE LEGEND
Beloved broadcaster, singer and “little Aussie battler” Ernie Sigley battled Alzheimer’s disease for five years before his death on Sunday. He had been in residential care for most of that time.
David Sigley, who is a Uniting Church minister, told the ABC last year: “He doesn’t know my name, but the love that me and him have will never go. It’s an important thing to remember and hold on to. One thing that gives me joy is that he gave so many people joy”.
Ernest William Sigley – better known as “Ernie” – was born in Footscray, on September 2, 1938.
In a career spanning six decades, Sigley’s talent and knowledge made him one of Australia’s most accomplished and award-winning entertainers.
A television host, radio presenter and singer, Ernie’s diminutive stature, working-class roots and larrikin laugh often saw him referred to as the “little Aussie battler”.
His entertainment career began in 1952 as a turntable operator at Melbourne radio station 3DB.
Five years later, at the age of 19, he made his television debut hosting Teenage Mailbag on Channel 7 in Melbourne.
Sigley also worked at the BBC and Radio Luxembourg.
In 1964, Sigley travelled to London to interview The Beatles, but missed them by a day. When he caught up with the band in Adelaide, John Lennon sniped: “Hey Paul, this is the bloody idiot that flew all the way from Australia to interview us”.
He hosted the The Ernie Sigley Show from 1974 to 1976, starting a long-term working partnership with performer Denise Drysdale.
But his famous temper resulted in Kerry Packer sacking Sigley from the prime time show. Sigley’s “crime” was making a disparaging remark about cricket.
Later, Sigley and Drysdale co-hosted the variety TV show, In Melbourne Today.
They also had a chart-topping pop hit with the song, Hey Paula.
In a 2019 interview, Drysdale recalled her bittersweet visit to a dear friend.
“When I went to see him I sung the whole of Hey Paula, and he stood there and looked at me and got emotional,” Drysdale told the Starts At 60 website.
“Then he gave me a big hug, so there was some recognition at that stage, but then I sat on the chair and he said, ‘God, you remind me of somebody’.”
Drysdale told the Herald Sun in 2018: “(Sigley) had the most amazing brain. He knew so much about people whether they were an artist, a politician, a sportsman. He could recall the most extraordinary things and he never forgot.”
She also said their chemistry together was a natural fit.
“You can’t manufacture what we had together, we just flourished and he was very generous,” Drysdale said. “As long as they (the audience) were laughing he did not care who got the laugh.”
Sigley returned to radio in 1996, helming 3AW’s top-rating afternoon radio program until his retirement in 2008.
Sigley won 21 Logie Awards, and took home a Gold Logie in 1975. The award was presented to him by one of his idols, John Wayne.
As a son of the west, Sigley was a diehard supporter of the Western Bulldogs. Sadly, the staunch Footscray fan didn’t attend the Doggies win over the Sydney Swans at the 2016 AFL grand final.
By then, illness had started to take hold.
“While he would love to have been at the MCG to watch his beloved Western Bulldogs make history, Ernie had to settle for the live television broadcast,” his family said.
Ernie and Glenys, nee Glenys O’Brien, a former TV personality, were married for 47 years.
Their son Matthew was a member of Australian indie pop-rock band The Earthmen, and played keyboards for Australian bands The Fauves and Drop City.
On Sunday, Ernie’s family requested privacy, but also referred media to support the fight for a cure for dementia by visiting fightdementia.org.au
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