Genius, visionary and very bloody funny: John ‘Strop’ Cornell, TV icon and Kerry Packer cricket rebel, dead at 80

The long-time TV partner of Paul Hogan and a key figure in World Series Cricket has died at the age of 80 after a 20-year battle with Parkinson’s.

Australian television icons Paul Hogan, John ‘Strop’ Cornell and Delvene Delaney from the 1970s halcyon days of The Paul Hogan Show. Cornell and Delaney met on the show and married in 1977.

John “Strop” Cornell, the whip-smart film and TV visionary who formed a world-beating partnership with Paul Hogan and drove the creation of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, has died after a decades-long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 80.

The producer behind The Paul Hogan Show and the Crocodile Dundee film franchise died peacefully in his Byron Bay home on Friday morning. His wife of 43 years, TV personality Delvene Delaney, and his eldest daughter were by his side, while his youngest daughter said her farewells over the phone from Britain.

“A classic Australian character, John Cornell made the lives he touched much richer, not only through donations, but also through his generosity of spirit, humour, humility and honour,” his family said in a statement.

John Cornell, Paul Hogan and Delvene Delaney.

Cornell was mourned across the country, with fans remembering him fondly as a “classic Aussie larrikin” and “a comic genius”. The memories were tinged with nostalgia and a vague sense of even greater loss.

Cornell and his great mate, “Hoges”, had helped carve out a ­comedic vision of Australia that helped to define the shaggy-dog 1970s: a charmingly yobbo blend of brash provincialism and mocking rebellion.

A former journalist, Cornell met Hogan in 1971 while working as a producer on Channel 9’s A Current Affair. Recognising a kindred spirit, he became Hogan’s manager and, almost incidentally, a TV star, with regular appearances on The Paul Hogan Show as Hoges’ dimwitted but loyal sidekick, Strop.

Paul Hogan, Karen Pini and John Cornell in 1971.

As a disguise, Cornell’s mumbling, jut-jawed alter ego was ­perfect. Beneath the character’s trademark lifesaver’s skull cap was a huge intellect and a keen eye for opportunity.

In 1986, Cornell produced and co-wrote the screenplay for Hogan’s Crocodile Dundee, the most profitable Australian movie of all time. It scored an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay and went on to gross $360m worldwide.

Ten years earlier, Cornell kindled the flame of a sporting revolution when he took the concept of World Series Cricket to Kerry Packer. He also owned the ­famous Byron Bay Beach Hotel until its sale for $44m in 2007.

Delvene Delaney and Cornell.

Former Nine chief executive David Gyngell, co-owner with Cornell and Delaney of Hotel Brunswick in Brunswick Heads, described his close friend as “an iconic Australian man”. “He made everyone laugh, he made your sport experience ­better and built the best pub in Australia,” Mr Gyngell said in a statement. “On top of that, he was a giving family man who kept an eye on his mates and made his community and environment better. A ripper through and through.”

Cornell met Delaney when she appeared on The Paul Hogan Show and they were married in 1977. In an interview with The Weekend Australian from his Los Angeles home last year, Hogan said Cornell was largely bedridden and couldn’t talk on the phone but “Delvene’s looking after him”.

John Cornell with Kerry Packer in 1977

Hogan spoke tenderly of the man he called his “best friend”. “It’s just providence or whatever to have someone who thinks like I think,” Hogan said. “He was the entrepreneur and he always had more faith and more vision in me than I ever did. I’m just lazy and I need someone to prod me. That’s what John Cornell used to do; I’d call him my cattle prod.”

Cornell is survived by wife Delaney and daughters Melissa, Allira and Liana.