Michael Willesee was born in Perth in 1942 and passed away in March 2019. He got his start at the Perth Daily News then moved to the Melbourne Age in 1963. Mike joined Australia's first nightly prime-time current affairs show This Day Tonight, before hosting the ABC's Four Corners. In between, he reported from the Vietnam War 1967-71. Mike created and presented A Current Affair for Channel Nine 1971-73, then chaired the Mike Willesee Show and Willesee interview shows for Channels Ten and Seven. In the eighties, he drew record ratings for his documentaries Quentin and The Hunting Party, while pioneering FM radio with the license that is now 2Day FM. In 1988 Mike led the consortium to save the Sydney Swans, serving his old club as president until 1993. After the Cangai Siege controversy on ACA that same year, Mike sold his successful thoroughbred stud farms and made the films The Last Warriors and Signs From God, the latter drawing 28 million views in the US. In 2012, a decade after being inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame, Mike joined Seven's Sunday Night and reclaimed his place as Australia's pre-eminent TV interviewer. racing. He was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2002. Mike's first book, Memoirs, was published in 2017.
