Stuart Wagstaff AM (13 February 1925 – 10 March 2015) was an English-born Australian entertainer who was active in all genres of the industry including theatre, television and film, and music and stage management.
After the war, Wagstaff joined the Windsor repertory theatre as an assistant stage manager, occasionally taking small roles in plays.
He then joined the Whitley repertory theatre in which he took part in up to 48 plays and four weeks of pantomime each year as well as a few West End, film and television appearances.
Wagstaff's early Australia television appearances consisted of commercials, and a role in the 1960 Crawford Productions play Seagulls Over Sorrento.
During this two-and-a-half year period with Beauty and the Beast, he also appeared in leading roles in several stage productions including There's a Girl in My Soup, Present Laughter, Private Lives, several theatre restaurant revues, and a 1966 episode of the TV drama series Homicide.
In a 2003 interview published in The Age, journalist Chris Beck commented: "By his own account he is a workman-like actor who has been largely ignored for film and television roles because, he says, "I did 116 Benson and Hedges commercials and I was very heavily identified.
"After a three-year stint in Hollywood, working in film and television, Wagstaff returned to Australia in 1975 and was immediately kept busy with TV appearances all over the country, including being a regular panellist on Channel 9's Celebrity Squares, then two years as permanent panellist on the 0-10 Network's Blankety Blanks, plus seven seasons as the host/presenter on the ABC's Stuart Wagstaff's World Playhouse.
The late 1980s and the 1990s saw him on stage with Sydney seasons and subsequent tours of Noises Off, Black Comedy, The Winslow Boy, Lend Me A Tenor and Gershwin's musical Crazy For You.
[4] On 26 January 1998, Wagstaff was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the community, particularly through the Perth Telethon by raising funds for charities that support children's medical research.
[5] In March 2023, Wagstaff was commemorated with a new street name 'Wagstaff Way' in the subdivision of the former TVW studios site in Dianella, Western Australia due to his direct personal contribution to Telethon.