1. Robert Wentworth John Holness was an English-South African radio and television presenter and occasional actor.
17 Facts About Bob Holness
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Bob Holness's grandfather had been a mining engineer and prospector; Holness's father succeeded him in these mining interests, "and regularly drove across Natal, paying out the wages at the mines, and returning with lumps of gold that had been discovered".
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Bob Holness then returned to South Africa and worked for a printing company.
4.
In 1955, Bob Holness received his first job as a radio presenter and, a year later, became the second actor to portray James Bond in a radio production of Moonraker for the SABC's Springbok Radio.
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Bob Holness joined the BBC as a presenter on Late Night Extra, initially on the BBC Light Programme and later on Radio 1 and Radio 2, presenting alongside Terry Wogan, Michael Parkinson and Keith Fordyce.
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Bob Holness moved to independent radio and co-presented the award-winning breakfast-time AM Programme alongside Douglas Cameron on London's LBC radio station between 1975 and 1985.
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Bob Holness originally joined the station as an airborne traffic reporter, later progressing to reading networked news bulletins for IRN.
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Bob Holness won the Variety Club Award for 'Joint Independent Radio Personality of the Year' in both 1979 and 1984.
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In 1962, Bob Holness became the host of UK game show Take a Letter, and relief host of Thames Television's magazine programme Today in 1968.
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Bob Holness starred in a celebrity special of Catchphrase in 1988, and later appeared again with his daughter, Carol, in a Christmas version of Family Catchphrase, he was on the 1988 Christmas edition of Bullseye partnered with Eric Bristow.
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Bob Holness hosted Yorkshire Television's big-budget game show flop Raise the Roof, in 1995, before becoming the chairman of a revived Call My Bluff for the BBC.
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Bob Holness appeared on one episode of Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway in 2004, when he presented the last round of Ant and Dec's Blockbusters, with Ant as a contestant.
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Bob Holness met his wife, former actress Mary Rose Clifford, in repertory theatre in South Africa.
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Bob Holness gave his support to many charities, including the children's charities Teenage Cancer Trust, Young People's Trust for the Environment and National Children's Home, of which he was vice-president from 1994.
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On 24 November 2002, Bob Holness suffered a major stroke, following which a brain scan revealed he had previously suffered a number of transient ischaemic attacks over several years.
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On 6 January 2012, Bob Holness' family announced that he had died earlier that day, in his sleep, at the age of 83.
17.
Bob Holness's wife died on 26 June 2020 in Pinner, London.