The secret life of Louie
Louie the Fly first landed on the scene in 1957. Born to parents Marg and Mort, he is the youngest of three boys. While he was always the apple of his mother’s eye, he was known around town as the ultimate bad egg. Everybody either knew Louie or had heard about him. He was bad, mean and mighty unclean, and he spread disease with the greatest of ease.
A star is born
If you were to ask Louie the Fly how his career on the small screen started, he would grumble, “Come on, I was born a star!” It’s been almost 50 years since Louie made his television debut and his reputation has grown so fierce that his first manager, Bill Graham, once described him as being “afraid of no-one — ’cept the man with the can of Fly spray”.
Behind the mask
Louie has long enjoyed his status as a philandering party animal ... or should we say ... party insect. One thing’s for sure — he lives in total squalor. Visitors to his home often compare it to a rubbish tip, something his on-screen performances have done little to dispel.
Louie’s TV career has spanned more than half a century. He has starred in numerous commercials since 1957 and (dis)graced the pages of countless newspapers and magazines. At one point, Louie was given his own spin-off cartoon series in a Sydney newspaper!
Louie was once compared to the great character actor Robert De Niro for his roguish charm and the intensity of his on-screen performances. But Louie has always played down comparisons with silver screen villains. “Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? No, seriously, sure I’m bad, sure I’m mean and mighty unclean but at the end of the day, I’m just a fly that got lucky.”