11 Facts About Richard Carleton

Richard Carleton continued these roles until he left for a role on 2GB Radio in 1976, followed by what began as a lifelong love of travelling and researching overseas, producing films in Indonesia and the Middle East.

Richard Carleton ran for election in 1983 as the staff representative on the ABC Board.

In 1987, Richard Carleton began his most famous television journalism role, as a reporter on 60 Minutes.

Richard Carleton was parodied on the Australian sketch-comedy shows Fast Forward and Comedy Inc for his perceived over-prominence on 60 Minutes.

In July 2000, the ABC's Media Watch program accused Richard Carleton of plagiarising the BBC documentary A Cry from the Grave.

Richard Carleton denied the claims, suing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for defamation.

In 2002 the case was heard, and the judge found that while Richard Carleton had "misled his audience by misrepresenting a mass grave site shown in the program, and that 60 Minutes had copied film directly from the British documentary", the allegations made by Media Watch were in fact untrue and had defamed Richard Carleton.

Media Watch themselves claimed that Richard Carleton had interpreted the judgement as favouring him, when they believed it didn't, and they refused to apologise.

Richard Carleton won five Penguin Awards and three Logie Awards during his time with 60 Minutes and at the ABC.

Richard Carleton had experienced a number of health scares; the first was in 1988 when he underwent heart bypass surgery, which was filmed for 60 Minutes, and another in 2003 when he suffered a heart attack.

On 7 May 2006, Richard Carleton collapsed from a massive heart attack during a press conference at the Beaconsfield gold mine, shortly after questioning mine manager Matthew Gill on previous safety issues at the site.