Derryn Hinch: Profile

In January 2010 Derryn Hinch passed a personal media milestone. He celebrated his 50 years as a journalist.

Hinch used to threaten he would eventually write an autobiography and call it Famous People who have met me. He was joking. Eventually he did write three. The first, about the private thoughts of a public person, used his catchphrase as the title: That's Life. The second was called The Fall and Rise of Derryn Hinch - How I hit the wall and didn't bleed. And his third – to be released in October 2010 –is called Human Headlines – My 50 years in the media. He has now written twelve books, including two novels.

A national magazine once referred to him as 'the former Derryn Hinch'.

And there have been a lot of 'former' situations in Hinch’s life. He is a former police rounds reporter, former foreign correspondent, former newspaper editor, former host of national current affairs shows, former novelist, former radio host in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, former MIDDAY host and former jailbird. He spent 12 days in jail over a contempt of court charge when he revealed the name of a convicted child molester. And is currently before the High Court over charges involving the publication of the suppressed names of serial rapists and paedophiles.

For 11 years Hinch covered both North and South America for the Sydney Morning Herald and other Fairfax papers as well as the Macquarie Radio Network. He was there at Cape Kennedy when man first went to the moon. He was there for such turning points in history as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.

He was there when President Nixon resigned at the peak of the Watergate scandal.

In politics, Hinch has met every Australian Prime Minister from Bob Menzies to Julia Gillard. He has been in the Oval Office at the White House and interviewed such diverse politicians as Senator Edward Kennedy and Andrew Peacock.

In entertainment Hinch has interviewed such big names as Meryl Streep,  Geena Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Harrison Ford, Catherine Deneuve, Mae West, Peter Finch and Rod Taylor.
At home here in Australia he has interviewed every major male and female star over the years - and was also married to a national icon, Jacki Weaver, for 14 years.

Hinch was the first person to interview fugitive businessman Christopher Skase in Majorca after he fled Australia. And  he has interviewed the Dalai Lama three times.Derryn Hinch first joined 3AW in 1979. He went on to become the undisputed King of Melbourne radio - with the highest morning ratings ever achieved then or now - before leaving to host the top rating HINCH on the Seven and Ten networks and then Midday on Nine. He rejoined 3AW for the third time (after a year doing Nightline in 2000) in February 2003 and has been a top rater ever since.

Away from journalism in recent years Hinch has made some diverse and surprising appearances: In The Wog Boy movie, Dancing With The Stars on Seven, as himself in the Nine Network series Underbelly , as a radio crusader with a grubby secret on City Homicide and in late 2008 starred as The Narrator in the Melbourne season of The Rocky Horror Show.

He had a near-death medical crisis in 2006 with liver disease, septicaemia,  kidney malfunction and immune system failure when he lost more than 30 kilos in weight.
He said: ‘I looked like Rock Hudson three days before he died of AIDS.’
Apart from writing and broadcasting he now leads a more tranquil (and sober) life with his wife Chanel and Scrappy Muttley Hinch, the family cavoodle. His pastimes: holidaying in New York and Hawaii, playing Texas Hold ‘em poker and restaurant reviewing as The Hungry Hinch.

Email: hinch@hinch.net

Website:  www.hinch.net