Veteran reporter Peter Luck has died aged 73, his family announced on Thursday.
Luck had spent years battling both cancer and Parkinson’s Disease and died last night at Concord Hospital, the ABC reports.
He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Penny, their two children and three grandchildren.
Luck was a household name in the ’70s and ’80s, working for the ABC, Nine News, and Seven Network and appearing on This Day Tonight, Four Corners, Sunday, Today Tonight, Inside Edition.
Close friend and journalist Mike Carlton told the ABC that Luck had lived through “long and painful” illnesses.
“I’m deeply, deeply sad because he was a true friend, a great friend and one of Australia’s finest television journalists,” he said.
Tributes have already started flooding in on social media, with people remembering him as “one of the greats”.
Vale Peter Luck, one of the true greats of journalism, a role model to generations of reporters @abcnews @4corners pic.twitter.com/FSQ2tOmOaV
— Sally Neighbour (@neighbour_s) September 7, 2017
RIP. A very good man, Peter Luck, formidable journalist and writer, with a strongly Australian bent. https://t.co/FtxkJ1ZPBa
— Peter FitzSimons (@Peter_Fitz) September 6, 2017
Peter Luck by Rocco Fazzari, 3 April, 1998. The journalist and TV presenter has died, aged 73 @smh @roccofazzari pic.twitter.com/vvd6INRmxx
— From The Archives (@AgeSMH_Archives) September 7, 2017
As well as reporting, Luck also authored a number of books on Australian history including This Fabulous Century and Australian Icons: Things That Make Us What We Are.