Famed Australian journalist and Gold Logie Award winner Michael Charlton has died aged 98.
Best known Down Under as the first host of the ABC’s Four Corners current affairs show in 1961, Charlton later forged a prestigious media career in the UK.Â
The Telegraph UK announced he passed away at his home on August 24. No further details have been released.
Known for his casual on-screen style, ‘posh’ accent and penetrating interview technique, Charlton covered some of the major events of the 20th century.
Among Charlton’s most memorable reports was his broadcast from the US following the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.
He also took viewers inside Mission Control for the Apollo moon landing in 1969, and covered the Vietnam War.
Famed Australian journalist and Gold Logie Award winner Michael Charlton has died at age 98. Pictured: Charlton interviewed for the 50th anniversary of Four Corners in 2011
Charlton later won acclaim for going face-to-face with world leaders in headline-making interviews, including international leaders and one former Nazi.
Born in Sydney in 1927, Charlton began his career as a sports journalist with the ABC in the 1950s.
His much-admired coverage of first-class cricket led him to score a prized role on the BBC commentary team for the 1956 England v Australia Test Series.
In November the same year, Charlton hosted the very first broadcast of ABC TV.Â
Five years later, in 1961, Charlton helped co-found Four Corners alongside ABC executive producer Bob Raymond.
Charlton helmed the current affairs show, which took on hard-hitting stories that Australia’s media had long overlooked, including investigating poverty and organised crime.
The show’s irreverent style attracted the wrath of politicians and stunned 1960s audiences who were not used to controversial content.
Charlton left Four Corners for a career in the UK in 1962 and a year later won a Gold Logie.
Best known Down Under as the first host of the ABC’s Four Corners current affairs show in 1961, Charlton later forged a prestigious media career in the UK. The Telegraph UK announced he passed away at his home on August 24. No further details have been released
He then spent 15 years with the BBC’s prestigious investigative news magazine Panorama.
It was during his time on the award-winning program that Charlton interviewed the notorious high-ranking Nazi and close associate of Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, in 1971.
After leaving Panorama in 1976, Charlton later returned to Australia to re-team with his old Four Corners colleague Bob Raymond.
The pair made a seven-part documentary for the ABC, Out of the Fiery Furnace, about the history and science of metallurgy.
Widely acclaimed, the popular show, which debuted in 1986, was later sold to 20 territories.Â
Charlton’s other credits include It’s Your World on the BBC and BBC2’s Newsday.Â
Charlton retired from public life soon after, but went on to become a prolific author, publishing several books on history and politics, covering subjects such as the Vietnam War and the former USSR.
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Famed Australian journalist and Gold Logie winner dies at 98