‘EVERYONE WANTS A MATE LIKE HIM!'

Paul Hogan has paid tribute to his best friend, who died after a 20-year battle with Parkinson’s disease

- Phillip Koch

With an incredible friendship and showbiz partnership spanning 50 years, there are few who knew legendary actor, producer, and entrepreneur John Cornell better than Paul Hogan, who credits his good friend with turning him into a star.

“We were both larrikins – we never took life too seriously,” remembered the Crocodile Dundee star when he heard his best mate had died peacefully at his Byron Bay farm last week.

MAKING A STAR

It was John who discovered Paul when he was a humble rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge after he appeared on A Current Affair, where John, then a journalist, was working in 1971.

“He was the one who insisted I should have my own show,” reveals Paul, 81, who readily admits he would probably still be working on the bridge if it wasn’t for the genius of the man many fans know as Strop on The Paul Hogan Show.

John was working behind the scenes to transform Paul into a star, and while he’ll be forever remembered as leering Strop, with his trademark lifesaver’s cap, his star role on The Paul Hogan Show wasn’t planned.

His wife of 44 years, Delvene Delaney, 69, who also starred on the iconic comedy show as everything from a high diving nun to a sex bomb in tiny denim shorts, reckons he only stepped in because they didn’t have the budget to pay for a real actor.