43 Facts About Kerry Packer

1.

Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century.

2.

Outside Australia, Kerry Packer was best known for founding World Series Cricket.

3.

Kerry Packer was born on 17 December 1937 in Sydney, Australia.

4.

Kerry Packer's father was Sir Frank Packer, an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network.

5.

Kerry Packer took part in various sports at school, including boxing, cricket, and rugby; though he struggled academically, possibly due to undiagnosed dyslexia.

6.

Kerry Packer's father had fallen out with his elder son, Clyde, in 1972.

7.

Kerry Packer was involved in a number of other gambling and tourism ventures, notably Crown Casino in Melbourne.

8.

Kerry Packer was widely respected in business circles, courted by politicians on both sides, and was widely regarded as one of the most astute businessmen of his time, despite having been a poor student.

9.

Packer's grandfather Robert Clyde Packer owned two Sydney newspapers while his father, Sir Frank Packer, was one of Australia's first media moguls, and Kerry's son, James, was executive chairman of PBL, before resigning in 2008.

10.

Kerry Packer was not originally destined for the role, but in the early 1970s Kerry took the place of the designated successor, his older brother, Clyde, after Clyde fell out with their father, quit PBL and moved to America.

11.

Kerry Packer took over the running of PBL in 1974, on the death of his father.

12.

Kerry Packer decided to link both stations to form the ill-fated Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation.

13.

In 1987, Kerry Packer made a fortune at the expense of disgraced tycoon Alan Bond.

14.

Kerry Packer later quipped, "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I've had mine".

15.

Kerry Packer sometimes took a direct interest in the editorial content of his papers, although he was far less interventionist than the notoriously hands-on Rupert Murdoch.

16.

Kerry Packer is said to have often manipulated broadcasts of cricket himself, to ensure that the end of a cricket match was broadcast, despite previously set television broadcast schedules.

17.

Kerry Packer faced a 1991 Australian government inquiry into the print media industry with some reluctance, but great humour.

18.

Outside Australia, Kerry Packer was best known for founding World Series Cricket.

19.

Kerry Packer's aim was to secure broadcasting rights for Australian cricket, and he was largely successful.

20.

Kerry Packer was famously quoted from a 1976 meeting with the Australian Cricket Board, with whom he met to negotiate the rights to televise cricket.

21.

Kerry Packer funded the World Rugby Corporation, a company formed by lawyer Geoff Levy and former Wallaby player Ross Turnbull.

22.

Kerry Packer repeatedly came under fire for his companies' alleged involvement in tax evasion schemes and for the extremely low amounts of company tax that his corporations are reported to have paid over the years.

23.

Kerry Packer fought repeated battles with the Australian Taxation Office over his corporate taxes.

24.

Kerry Packer successfully counter-attacked the commission with the assistance of his counsel Malcolm Turnbull.

25.

Notwithstanding the significant efforts made to preserve his security and privacy, Kerry Packer suffered two mysterious break-ins at his companies' headquarters in Park Street, Sydney:.

26.

Kerry Packer broke the sports boycott of apartheid South Africa which prevented South African sportsmen from representing their country when he recruited a number of South African cricketers to play on his World Series Cricket Team.

27.

Kerry Packer's timing was criticised, coming just months after the Soweto riots and the death of Steve Biko, murdered by the members of the South African security forces.

28.

The nickname his father gave Kerry Packer made him strive to new heights in schooling, trying to achieve "A" grades.

29.

In June 2009, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that former federal opposition leader, and subsequently an Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, a former legal adviser and business associate of Kerry Packer, revealed to journalist Annabel Crabb that Kerry Packer had threatened to have him killed when they fell out over their 1991 attempt to take over the Fairfax newspaper group through their Tourang consortium.

30.

Kerry Packer was a supporter of South Sydney Rabbitohs in the National Rugby League competition.

31.

Kerry Packer was an advocate of the Australian Republic Movement.

32.

Kerry Packer bought the Fyning Hill estate in West Sussex and expanded it to over 400 acres.

33.

Kerry Packer was a longtime heavy smoker and an avid gambler, fabled for his large wins and losses.

34.

Kerry Packer's visits were a risky affair for the casinos, as his wins and losses could make quite a difference to the finances of even bigger casinos.

35.

Kerry Packer was known for his sometimes volcanic temper, and for his perennial contempt for journalists who sought to question his activities.

36.

Kerry Packer is quoted for an exchange in a poker tournament at the Stratosphere Casino, where a Texan oil investor was attempting to engage him in a game of poker.

37.

Kerry Packer was revived by paramedics and then airlifted to St Vincent's Private Hospital, Sydney and received bypass surgery from Dr Victor Chang, a pioneering cardiac surgeon.

38.

Kerry Packer suffered from a chronic kidney condition for many years, and in 2000, he made headlines when his long-serving helicopter pilot, Nick Ross, donated one of his own kidneys to Packer for transplantation.

39.

The story of the transplant was covered in detail by the Australian TV documentary program Australian Story, a rare occasion on which Kerry Packer granted a media interview.

40.

Kerry Packer died of kidney failure on 26 December 2005, nine days after his 68th birthday, at home in Sydney, Australia, with his family by his bedside.

41.

Kerry Packer told his cardiologist earlier in the week that he was "running out of petrol" and wanted to "die with dignity".

42.

The Kerry Packer family accepted an offer of a state memorial service, which was held on 17 February 2006 at the Sydney Opera House.

43.

The granting of this taxpayer-funded honour was criticised by some members of the community, as Kerry Packer was notorious for his alleged tax minimisation.