Veteran journalist Mike Willesee dies, aged 76

Veteran TV journalist Mike Willesee has died after a long battle with throat cancer.

Veteran television journalist Mike Willesee has died after a long battle with cancer.

The iconic broadcast journalist was aged 76.

In a career spanning more than half a century, Mr Willesee worked variously for the ABC, Channel 9 and Channel 7.

He was diagnosed with throat cancer in late 2016, and told he had six to 12 months to live.

The man who had Muhammad Ali throw punches at him; a Viet Cong soldier point a gun at him; stood up to Kerry Packer and creamed John Hewson with a birthday cake was in for the biggest battle of his life.

Born in Perth in 1942, Willesee was the son of ALP Senator Donald Willesee.

His first foray into television journalism was in 1967 as a reporter for the ABC show This Day Tonight.

In a statement, an ABC spokeswoman said the broadcaster was saddened to hear of the loss and extended deepest condolencesto Willesee’s family. “Mike was a great of Australian journalism, and is an important part of the ABC’s history,” the ABC said.

“He has many friends and former colleagues here, and many more admirers who have been inspired by the talent, integrity and bravery that distinguished his career and life.” Colleagues and admirers have taken to social media to pay tribute after news broke of the journalist’s death.

Mike Willesee ahead of the release of his book, Memoirs by Mike Willesee, in 2017. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

“He was one of the true pioneers of TV journalism in Australia, an outstanding interviewer and a presence in every Australian living room for decades. Vale,” tweeted ABC News director Gaven Morris.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said Willesee’s legacy “as a pioneer in the golden age of current affairs will be long-lasting”.

“Tenacious and tough”

“Deeply saddened to hear that our colleague and TV legend Mike Willesee has passed away,” tweeted Seven Network Sunday Night host Melissa Doyle. “We’ll remember an incredible journalist, tenacious and tough. A loss for our industry.”

In 1969 Willesee was appointed the host of Four Corners before moving to the Nine Network in 1971 to host the newly-debuted A Current Affair, a show on which he was credited with discovering Paul Hogan.

In 1975 he presented the current-affairs review show Willesee at Seven.

The journalist’s fearless interviewing style earned the wrath of many of his subjects but also made him an influential figure.

The Opposition leader John Hewson comes unstuck trying to explain the GST effect on a birthday cake to Willesee on A Current Affair. “I need to know exactly what type of cake, Hewson said. It was the effectively end of his political career.

Willesee gained acclaim for many hard-hitting interviews throughout his career, including of Prime Minister Harold Holt and the famous ‘birthday cake’ interview of Liberal Party leader John Hewson in 1993.

One of Hewson’s controversial policies was the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST), of which Willesee inquired: “If I buy a birthday cake from a cake shop and GST is in place do I pay more or less for that birthday cake?”

Willesee married first wife Carol Brent in 1976, with the couple welcoming their first daughter Amy that same year.

He married and divorced three times, which he once admitted had been a source of great regret. He is the father of six children, and a swath of grandchildren.

In 2002 he was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards Hall of Fame. In a varied career which has also included horse breeding and racing, Willesee also was a one-time host of Australia’s This is Your Life.

His time as host of A Current Affair he often made news as well as reported it.

In 1993 his broadcast of a phone call made to a house under police siege prompted an industry-wide examination of news reporting.

In March 1993, three men had killed five people in Queensland and NSW, before kidnapping four children and holing up with two of them in a farmhouse in Cangai, near Grafton.

As police surrounded the property, an A Current Affair researcher was able to place a call to the house.

Willesee, then-host of A Current Affair, in 1991. Picture: News Corp

During an interview which was broadcast on A Current Affair, Willesee asked two of the children being held hostage if they had seen anybody killed. During a profile on Australian Story in 1998, Willesee said a plane crash in Kenya that year prompted a returned to the Roman Catholicism of his youth. “That made me stop and think about God,” he told the program. “I thought on balance there probably was a God otherwise this world doesn’t make much sense.”

Mike Willesee in Seminyak, Bali, for the Schapelle Corby’s interview in 2014. Picture: News Corp

He returned to mainstream television in 2012 for Channel 7’s Sunday Night, interviewing high profile people such as Prime Minister Julia Gillard and billionaire James Packer.

He last big interview was for Sunday Night, after it controversially snared the first interview with Schapelle Corby once she was freed from jail in Bali.

Mr Willesee is survived Willesee is survived by his brother, TV presenter Terry, sister Colleen, daughters Amy, Lucy, Katie, Jo and Mike Jr.

— with AAP

Mike Willesee with Muhammad Ali. Picture: News Corp