Reg Grundy

Reginald Roy "Reg" Grundy, AC, OBE (born 4 August 1923) is one of the most successful Australian entrepreneurs, and media and television moguls of his generation.

He was the only child born to Roy Grundy and Lillian Lees. Before his career in television, he served in the Australian Army during World War II as a Sergeant stationed in Sydney.

Grundy started as a boxing and general sports commentator for radio station 2SM Sydney in 1947. While at 2CH Sydney in 1957, he devised and hosted the Wheel of Fortune game show on radio, moving with that show to television, starting on Channel 9 in 1959. He then founded the Reg Grundy Organisation in 1960. After forming his own production company he began producing game shows for the Australian and overseas market, before eventually branching out into drama in 1973. In 1977, he co-produced ABBA: The Movie. The company has subsequently produced numerous successful television soap operas and drama series including Class of '74, Class of '75, The Restless Years, The Young Doctors, Prisoner, Glenview High, Sons and Daughters and Neighbours, as well as famed 1980s NBC Daytime game shows, Time Machine, $ale of the Century and Scrabble. In 1986, ABC aired Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak. In 1993, NBC aired Scattergories. He subsequently started the US-based company Reg Grundy Productions. In 1995, he sold the Grundy Organisation to the media and publishing company, Pearson PLC, now FremantleMedia.

He is married to the actress and author, Joy Chambers who has appeared in several of his soaps. They currently live in Bermuda. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Years Honours of 1983, and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2008.

In July 2004, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy by the University of Queensland.

Colloquially, in Australia, "Reg Grundies", or "Grundies" is rhyming slang slang for "undies" (underpants).

He was the owner of a yacht named Boadicea . This was sold in 2009 ([http://www.superyachttimes.com/editorial/23/article/id/3504})

Since 1995, Grundy has indulged in his lifelong passion of wildlife photography. Grundy published a book of photographs in 2005, "The Wildlife of Reg Grundy". In June 2009, an exhibition of photographs of Bermuda Longtail fish by Grundy, "Longtails: The Bermuda Dream", opened in The Rick Faries Gallery at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art.

Grundy owns 29% of Photon, an Australian based advertising, marketing and e-commerce group.