Ian Charles "Roscoe" Ross (24 June 194030 April 2014) was an Australian television news presenter for '' Seven News'' in Sydney and for ''

Nine News Nine News (stylized as 9News) is a national News agency, news service on the Nine Network in Australia. Its flagship program is an hour-long ''9News'' bulletin at 6:00 pm, with editions produced by Nine's owned-and-operated stations in TCN, S ...

''.

Career

Commonly known as "Roscoe", Ross began his career in 1957 at Sydney radio station 2GB. He returned to Sydney as a ''

National Nine News Nine News (stylized as 9News) is a national News agency, news service on the Nine Network in Australia. Its flagship program is an hour-long ''9News'' bulletin at 6:00 pm, with editions produced by Nine's owned-and-operated stations in TCN, S ...

'' reporter in 1965. Ross remained at Nine for 38 years, where he was most known for his tenure as '' Today'' news presenter. There, he also presented ''National Nine News'' on many occasions, filling in for presenters who were either on leave or sick. In 1997, Ross appeared as himself in the acclaimed Australian film ''The Castle''. Moving out of retirement in Queensland, Ross joined the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

in 2003, "lured back by the challenge of becoming Sydney's No 1 reader" to head the station's struggling flagship 6.00 pm bulletin. Despite making some steady progress in 2004, finishing with 13 weekly wins out of a possible 40, '' Seven News'' still finished third in Sydney behind ''

'' and '' Ten Eyewitness News'' in that year's ratings, but by the following year it had become Sydney's number one news bulletin. Before his final retirement, Ross was only hosting Sydney's edition of ''Seven News'' from Sunday to Wednesday, with

Chris Bath Christine Bath (born 13 May 1967) is an Australian journalist, radio and television presenter and news anchor. Bath currently hosts Drive on ABC Radio Sydney and '' 10 News First Weekend'' on Network 10. She has previously been host of Eve ...

hosting the news on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Ross previously presented the news Monday to Thursday until Chris Bath began hosting '' Sunday Night''. On 27 November 2009, Ian Ross presented his final bulletin of Sydney's '' Seven News'' and officially retired from newsreading. He was visibly moved as he made his final farewells to his viewers and colleagues. He was a guest on the first episode of

's '' The Daily Edition''.

Illness and death

In January 2014, at age 73, Ross publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and that it had spread to his liver. His doctors estimated that he had five months to live. He died on 30 April 2014 at the John Flynn Hospital in Tugun on the Gold Coast, survived by his partner Gray Bolte and his ex-wife, children and grandchildren, his sister Robin and step-brother Max. His funeral was held on the Gold Coast on 5 May 2014, and was attended by many of Ross's colleagues including former ''Today'' hosts

Steve Liebmann Steve Liebmann (born 4 May 1944) is an Australian retired television presenter, journalist and radio broadcaster. Liebmann is best known for co-hosting '' Today'' on the Nine Network between 1982 and 1986, and again from 1990 to 2005. Early ...

and Tracy Grimshaw, as well as ''Seven News'' personalities Mark Ferguson,

, Jim Wilson and Mark Beretta.Ian Ross farewelled on Gold Coast
, ''Sky News Australia'', 5 May 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Ian 1940 births 2014 deaths Australian radio journalists Australian television journalists Bisexual male writers Bisexual journalists Deaths from cancer in Queensland Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Australia Australian LGBTQ broadcasters Australian LGBTQ journalists Australian bisexual writers Australian bisexual men Australian television newsreaders and news presenters Seven News presenters