Johnny Young obit

Johnny Young, host and creator of Young Talent Time, dies aged 79

The singer-songwriter and producer also wrote several Australian hits, including The Real Thing for Russell Morris 

He was not on the list.

Johnny Young, the singer-songwriter and producer who created and hosted the popular variety show Young Talent Time, has died aged 79.

Young’s family announced his death in a statement on Friday, saying that Young died “following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer”.

“Johnny was the creator, host and producer of the much loved television show Young Talent Time. He wrote and produced many iconic hit songs including The Real Thing and Smiley,” the statement read.

“The family respectfully asks for privacy during this difficult time. Details of a memorial service will be announced soon.”

Young Talent Time, which originally aired from 1971 until 1988, launched the careers of several Australian singers including Tina Arena, Debra Byrne and Dannii Minogue. Every episode ended with Young and the cast performing the same closing number: the Beatles track All My Loving, one of his signature songs.

Young was born Johnny Benjamin Arthur de Jong in the Netherlands in 1947, with his family migrating to Perth in the 1950s. His family encouraged him to perform from an early age, with Young becoming a disc jockey out of high school and eventually a teen idol. By the age of 18 he was hosting pop music show Club Seventeen on Perth television, performing as Johnny Young & the Strangers, then Johnny Young & Kompany.

In the 1960s, Young began accruing hits including Step Back, which was one of the biggest-selling Australian singles of the decade, and his cover of All My Loving. He later described this period as “my full on pop star period”, adding: “It was a fantastic experience. Touring, meeting my idols – hey I got to meet Bob Dylan, I toured with the Rolling Stones, I was focused on being a pop star and doing concerts … and you know all that it entails – lots of girls and, yes, lots of sex and lots of everything.”

During a brief spell living in London with his friend Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, Young started writing songs. In 1968, Ian “Molly” Meldrum overheard Young practising his song The Real Thing, and insisted he cut a demo for the singer Russell Morris; the song was reportedly the most expensive single ever recorded in Australia at the time, and a huge hit for Morris. Young continued writing songs for and with Morris, including The Girl That I Love and Part Three into Paper Walls, which went to No 1 on Australia’s charts.

In 1971 Young began hosting the children’s talent quest show Young Talent Time, which he created after being inspired by The Mickey Mouse Club. The show was a huge hit until 1989 when it was axed due to dwindling ratings. Young had sold his family home to finance the building of a television studio and his marriage collapsed. “That was horrible. I’d lost a lot of money and it was the beginning of the end of a lot of things for me,” he later reflected on this period, adding: “I lost the family jewels … I was very ashamed of myself that I hadn’t protected my family financially more.”

In 1993, Young made headlines after he was mistakenly arrested in the Philippines and accused of running an illegal Aids clinic. Young had been in the country to support a friend, the former Young Talent Time director Terry Higgins, who was seeking alternative treatments for his HIV.

All charges against Young were dropped, but Australian media began questioning him about his sexuality and work with children. “It’s like: ‘Well, Johnny Young does this program with children. What’s he doing in an Aids clinic?’ was the thought,” he later told the ABC. “This guy saw me and he said ‘that’s Johnny Young, get the kids out of here. I don’t want to be in the same place as he is.’ Now that just devastated me. It just completely devastated me. I couldn’t believe it.” He continued to support Higgins until his death in 1994.

After Young Talent Time, Young worked as a radio disc jockey. He was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (Aria) Hall of Fame in 2010, by former Young Talent Team member Tina Arena.

Young Talent Time was briefly rebooted in 2012, with Young returning as a judge.

Young is survived by his third wife Marisha, sister Cornelia, daughters Anna and Fleur, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His son Craig also died of pancreatic cancer, aged 48.