Robert Clyde Packer, usually known as Clyde Packer, was the son of Australian newspaper magnate Frank Packer and the elder brother of media baron Kerry Packer.
30 Facts About Clyde Packer
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In 1976, Clyde Packer relocated to the United States, initially living in Los Angeles before moving to Santa Barbara, California.
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Robert Clyde Packer died of heart and lung failure on 8 April 2001, aged 65.
4.
Clyde Packer was born Robert Clyde Packer on 22 July 1935.
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Clyde Packer was named for his paternal grandfather, Robert Clyde Packer, who had established the Packer media dynasty.
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Clyde Packer's mother, Gretel Joyce nee Bullmore, was the daughter of Herbert Bullmore, an Australian-born physician and rugby union player who represented Scotland.
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Clyde Packer took part in various sports at school, including boxing, cricket, and rugby.
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Clyde Packer joined Australian Consolidated Press as a journalist and sub-editor of its flagship, The Daily Telegraph.
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In February 1958, ACP followed with the launch of The Observer, an "intellectual magazine", of which Horne was editor and Clyde Packer was his boss.
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Clyde Packer allowed Horne to hire various contributors including Peter Coleman, Michael Baume, Bruce Beresford, Robert Hughes, Barry Humphries, and James McAuley.
11.
In 1958, Clyde Packer hired Francis James of Anglican Press to print The Observer but, after three years and a run of "broken deadlines, overcharges, misprints, [and] slow deliveries", Horne and Clyde Packer took that job away.
12.
The Murdoch group had a photographer take evidence of the fracas and their afternoon newspaper, The Daily Mirror, ran a front-page article headlined "Knight's Sons in City Brawl" with a photo of Clyde Packer ejecting the manager of Anglican Press, John Willis, into the street.
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In 1961, Clyde Packer was promoted to assistant general manager of ACP.
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In 1965, Packer was made general manager of ACP and founded a record label, called Everybody's, as a joint venture with Harry M Miller and Nat Kipner, a record producer and former co-owner of Sunshine Records.
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In 1970, Clyde Packer became joint managing director of Nine Network with his father, Frank.
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Late in the next year, Clyde Packer launched A Current Affair on the Nine network, with Mike Willesee hosting.
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Clyde Packer resigned from his posts at the Nine Network and ACP, and later reflected on the split: "I suspect my father was as glad to get rid of me as I was to get rid of him".
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In 1976, Clyde Packer sold his quarter-share of the family business for A$4 million to Kerry, who went on to become Australia's richest man.
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Clyde Packer became vice-president of the Paddington-Waverley branch and a member of the Bligh state electorate conference.
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Clyde Packer was the Honorary Treasurer of the Children's Surgical Research Fund, a member of New South Wales Society for Crippled Children and New South Wales Committee Council for Civil Liberties.
21.
Clyde Packer moved to California in 1976 and rarely returned to Australia thereafter.
22.
Clyde Packer bought Surfing Magazine in 1976 and, during the mid-1980s, he expanded his interests by establishing the sister magazines, Bodyboarding Magazine and Volleyball.
23.
In 1984, Clyde Packer released a book, No Return Ticket, in which he interviewed nine fellow Australian expatriates: Robert Hughes, Gordon Chater, Graham Fraser, Dame Judith Anderson, James Wolfensohn, Germaine Greer, Maxwell Newton, Zoe Caldwell, and Sumner Locke Elliott.
24.
When Clyde Packer was contacted he observed that his brother "had his rights trampled on and his name defamed".
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The Costigan Commission had contacted the FBI and DEA to investigate Clyde Packer's own activities, after a US surfing official claimed that one of Packer's local magazines was a front for drug-trafficking.
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Clyde Packer was never officially accused of any wrongdoing related to those investigations.
27.
In January 1987, Clyde Packer told Ali Cromie of The Sydney Morning Herald that he had left Australia because he "would have a better future in America than Australia".
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Clyde Packer ran a consultancy business, Magazine Investment and Management.
29.
Clyde Packer had relocated to Los Angeles by 1976 where he married his second wife, Kate Clifford, a former model from Brisbane, on 7 July 1977.
30.
Clyde Packer was on a dialysis machine for treatment and had a kidney donated by his architect.