Selwyn Toogood

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Infobox person Selwyn Featherston Toogood Template:Post-nominals (4 April 1916 – 27 February 2001) was a New Zealand radio and television personality.

Early life and family

Born in Wellington on 4 April 1916, Toogood was the son of Henry Featherston Toogood and Ethel Lois Copus "Noonie" Toogood (née Butler).<ref name="Out of the Bag">Template:Cite book</ref> Through his mother, Toogood was the great-grandson of John Howell, who established a whaling station at Riverton, and his second wife, Caroline Brown, whose mother was Māori from the Ngāi Tahu iwi.<ref name="Out of the Bag"/> Toogood did not learn of his Māori ancestry until he was 18 years old.<ref name="Out of the Bag"/>

Toogood was educated at Wellesley College<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Wellington College, where he had an inauspicious career, apart from excelling in the dramatic arts.<ref name="Herald obituary">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 30 June 1948, Toogood married Cynthia Holden Webb at St Peter's church, in Willis Street, Wellington.<ref name="Out of the Bag"/> Cynthia's brother was Sir Richard Webb,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> who served as the New Zealand Chief of Defence Staff between 1971 and 1976. The Toogoods went on to have two sons, including Kit Toogood, who was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1999 and a High Court judge in 2011.<ref name="NZonScreen">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Military service

Toogood joined the army following the outbreak of World War II.<ref name="NZonScreen"/> As an ammunition officer, he saw active service in Greece, North Africa and Italy, rising to the rank of major.<ref name="Herald obituary"/><ref name="NZonScreen"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was mentioned in dispatches in 1944, in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Italy.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

In 1953, Toogood was awarded the Efficiency Decoration.<ref name="Whos who">Template:Cite book</ref>

Acting and broadcasting career

After leaving school, Toogood became involved in theatre and radio, including a role in New Zealand's first radio soap opera. On a troopship on the way home from World War II, he ran his first quiz show. After the war, Toogood picked up where he had left off as a stage actor, voice-over artist and radio announcer.

File:Beauty and the Beast (TVNZ).jpg

Toogood (centre) as host of Beauty and the Beast, surrounded by panellists (from left) Jean McLean, Denise Brady, Lorraine Isaacs (director), Shona McFarlane, and Johnny Frisbie

He began his career as a radio host in 1946 and was the originator of the game show It's in the Bag, in which he popularised the catch-phrases, "By hokey", and "What will it be, customers - the money or the bag?", in New Zealand. It's in the Bag eventually moved on to network television, where it was equally successful. He published his autobiography Out Of The Bag in 1979. Toogood hosted numerous other TV shows for the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand and Television New Zealand, including the panel show Beauty and the Beast and the children's quiz show W3. He retired from It's in the Bag in the 1980s, handing over the mantle to radio and TV host John Hawkesby.

In the 1977 New Year Honours, Toogood was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for community services.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Toogood was awarded a special lifetime achievement award by the New Zealand Academy of Film and Television Arts in New Zealand in 1999.

Death

Toogood died in Auckland in 2001,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and his ashes were buried in Karori Cemetery.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cynthia Toogood died in 2005.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• List of New Zealand television personalities

External links

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