Leo Dennis Grills, known professionally as Lucky Grills, was an Australian actor and comedian.
23 Facts About Lucky Grills
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Lucky Grills's best known acting role was in the crime drama TV series Bluey playing the title role, and later parodied in Bargearse.
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Lucky Grills was born on Johnson Street in Moonah, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, on 26 May 1928, to Francis Leonard Lucky Grills and Hilda May.
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Lucky Grills was the youngest of five siblings, who were Thelda Jean, Raymond Ernest, Eunice and Faye Grills.
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Lucky Grills was born into the depression, at a time when there was little work available and money was tight.
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Lucky Grills was raised on a farm until his family relocated to Melbourne, hoping for better prospects.
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Lucky Grills left school at 14 years and took a printing apprenticeship.
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Lucky Grills later moved with the show to the New Tivoli Theatre, Sydney.
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Lucky Grills worked as a stand-up comic in the Sydney clubs, sometimes playing the trumpet and drums.
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On one occasion in Adelaide, Lucky Grills had done a show and needed to get a taxi.
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Lucky Grills had put on a big houndstooth-checked sports jacket and was carrying a suitcase.
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Lucky Grills had to set him straight and let him know he was not a wrestler but a comic.
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Lucky Grills did three hundred weeks in a migrant education programme called You Say the Word, where he played the owner of a factory.
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Lucky Grills was sent a script page, read it and duly went to the audition.
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Lucky Grills starred in children's film Molly alongside Claudia Karvan and long running TV soap opera Home and Away.
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Lucky Grills played minor roles in A Country Practice, 1987 war miniseries Vietnam alongside Nicole Kidman and the film Fast Talking with Steve Bisley.
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Lucky Grills was reintroduced to a younger generation in a recurring segment of the early 1990s comedy series The Late Show called Bargearse, a humorous re-dub of Bluey.
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Lucky Grills is often credited as being the last touring vaudeville performer in Australia and frequently performed two shows a night, seven days a week throughout Australia and internationally.
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Lucky Grills was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in the 2000 Queen's New Year's Honours List for his services to the entertainment industry and the arts.
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Lucky Grills was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to the entertainment industry through charitable organisations.
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Lucky Grills was happily married to third wife Maria until his death.
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On 28 July, 2007, at the age of 79, Lucky Grills died in his sleep at his home on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
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Lucky Grills's cremated remains were later interred with his parents at Cheltenham Memorial Cemetery in Melbourne on 19 December 2007.