John Bernard Derum was born in St Vincent's Maternity Hospital[1] in East Melbourne (now demolished)[2] on 9 January 1946.
[1][3][4] Derum first appeared on Australian television in the first episode of Homicide in 1964, a serious role as the delinquent son of a bank security guard.
For ABC Television, he hosted more than 200 editions of the national quiz The Oz Game and more than 50 episodes of the Australian music and folklore program That's Australia.
His film appearances include Mad Dog Morgan, The Trespassers (1976; as Richard),[5][9] Kazzam International, and The Night the Prowler (1978; as John).
Derum first appeared in theatre the same year he made his TV debut in 1963 in a production of at Wal Cherry's Emerald Hill Theatre and was cast in the George Whaley production Billy Liar, and within six months was working as a alongside Googie Withers and Keith Mitchell in a nationwide Shakespeare tour called "The First Four Hundred Years".
Derum was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 26 January 2019, "for significant service to the performing arts as an actor, director and administrator, and to the community".