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Sunday 27 September 2009

Post 163 - Ed Devereaux - Sings & Tells The Story Of Skippy The Bush Kangaroo EP

Ed Devereaux born on August 1925 was an Australian actor, who lived in the UK for many years. He was best known for playing the part of Matt Hammond in the Australian children's television series Skippy. Devereaux was one of 10 children born into a working-class Catholic family in North Sydney. He had been a boy soprano, teenage soldier in New Guinea, cabbie, storeman and truck driver before the acting urge took him to London in 1950. He played Matt Hammond, head ranger at Waratah National Park, father to Sonny (Garry Pankhurst) and Mark (Ken James) and boss of helicopter pilot Jerry King (Tony Bonner) in Skippy between 1966 and 1968. Here to download is the 2nd of two EP's this one was released on RCA Records in 1970 "Ed Devereaux Sings & Tells The Story Of Skippy The Bush Kangaroo" (20545). Despite an acting career that spanned six decades Devereaux never dodged talking about the show that made him a household name, although he believed he never saw enough money from Skippy. Devereaux died in his sleep of renal failure at his Hampstead home between 3am and 4am on Wednesday 17th of December 2003, London time, three months after he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus.

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