Richard Whiteley
Presenter, TV Personality
1943 – 2005
Who was Richard Whiteley?
John Richard Whiteley, OBE, DL was an English broadcaster and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show Countdown. Countdown was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45 pm on 2 November 1982, and Whiteley was the first person to be seen on the channel. Despite his intelligence, Whiteley enjoyed projecting the image of an absent-minded eccentric. His trademarks were his jolly, avuncular manner, his fondness for excruciatingly bad puns, and his bold, sometimes garish wardrobe.
Thanks to over twenty years' worth of nightly instalments of Countdown as well as his work on the Yorkshire magazine programme Calendar and various other television projects, at the time of his death Whiteley was believed to have clocked more hours on British television screens—and more than 10,000 appearances—than anyone else alive, apart from Carole Hersee, the young girl who appeared on the BBC's iconic Test Card F.
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- Born
- Dec 28, 1943
Bradford - Also known as
- John Richard Whiteley
- Mayor Richard Whiteley
- "Twice-Nightly" Whiteley
- Richard Whiteley OBE
- Spouses
- Candy Watson
(1973/06/06 - 1975) - Kathryn Apanowicz
(1994 - 2005/06/26)
- Candy Watson
- Children
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- England
- Profession
- Education
- Christ's College, Cambridge
- Giggleswick School
- Lived in
- Baildon
- Died
- Jun 26, 2005
Leeds
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"Richard Whiteley." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/richard_whiteley>.
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