"Whiteley met Jeni Cropper when she was a young press officer and he was a reporter with Yorkshire Television in the late 1970s. He is most remembered for Countdown. Despite his intelligence, Whiteley enjoyed projecting the image of an absent-minded eccentric. He was best known for being the presenter of the long running UK Channel 4 television show Countdown (1982). Richard Whiteley who received an OBE in 2004 . A WEEK before he died Richard Whiteley joked about Countdown's stand-in presenters and was planning a champagne celebration for son James' 18th birthday. British TV Personality Richard Whiteley was born John Richard Whiteley on 28th December, 1943 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and passed away on 26th Jun 2005 Leeds, West Yorkshire, England aged 61. John Richard Whiteley, a staunchly proud Yorkshireman, was a much-loved television presenter and journalist, born in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1943. Richard Whiteley, the television presenter, left £4 million in his will which names two women in his life as beneficiaries but ignores the mother of his teenage son and his former wife. He was a supporter in word and deed and provided a new sound system for our chapel as part of its restoration. In June 2005, the producers of Countdown asked Vorderman if she wanted to fill the role of main presenter vacated by the recently deceased Richard Whiteley. A veteran TV journalist, he was once savaged, live and on-air, by a ferret. Thanks to over twenty years' worth of nightly instalments of John Richard Whiteley was born 28 December 1943 in On leaving Cambridge in July 1965, Whiteley served three years as a trainee at However, it gradually rebuilt its audience over the following weeks, and it was as the host of Whiteley was one of the first people to report on the 1984 In May 2005, Whiteley was taken into hospital with On 10 November 2005, five months after his death, thousands of friends and admirers gathered at In 2007, Channel 4 announced its creation of the Richard Whiteley Memorial Bursary, a nine-month work experience placement at Yorkshire Television, working with Three pairs of Whiteley's spectacles were donated by "Although most of the Whiteley fortune is thought to have been amassed during his television career, he already had money through a family business.His father, Kenneth, ran the family worsted mill Thomas Whiteley & Co, in Eccleshill, Bradford, which was sold in 1963.Whiteley was reported to have had a contract worth £350,000 a year, shares in Yorkshire Television and directorships of two radio station when he died.He was working as a journalist in Leeds when he met Caroline Watson, a surgeon's daughter, and they were married at a chapel in East Keswick, West Yorks, in June 1973.She was his first real love and Whiteley was heartbroken when she left him the following winter.He said later: "One day I came home and she wasn't there.
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"He was a truly remarkable man who was committed to his former school. Relationship: Richard Whiteley and Kathryn Apanowicz "A jokey, light-hearted buffoon - forget it. "Whiteley remained on friendly terms with the women in his life and they have all been reluctant to comment publicly since his death.Much of the estate will be subject to inheritance tax, but Whiteley was able to leave at least £2.5 million in property and cash in the will drawn up in December 2001.He owned at least five houses including his main home, worth about £1.5 million, at Burley Woodhead, near Ilkley, West Yorks, which is thought to be up for sale to meet death duties.Mr Whiteley bequeathed Miss Apanowicz, 45, a former actress, his Yorkshire Dales holiday home, the Old Parsonage, in East Witton, near Leyburn, worth an estimated £250,000.They had been together for 11 years while she was working part-time as a local radio presenter and she will also receive half of the pay-out from his pension fund.Miss Cropper, who runs a public relations agency, will receive his investment in a riverside apartment developments in The Calls, Leeds.James gets his father's stake in the house where he lives in Chiswick, west London, and when he is 25 will receive half the pay-out from his father's pension scheme and 65 per cent of the estate's residue.Whiteley has left another house in Masham, North Yorks, and £5,000 cash to his niece Georgina Stewart, a teacher, who is the daughter of his late sister.His old boarding school, Giggleswick, near Settle, which he attended before reading English at Christ's College, Cambridge, will receive 35 per cent of the remainder of the estate.Geoffrey Boult, the headmaster of the 500-pupil school, said: "We are very touched and honoured that he has chosen to remember his old school in his will, but we are not surprised.
By Matt Barnwell and James Burleigh. After Richard Whiteley. About. He inspired tremendous loyalty in people. 12:05AM BST 27 Jun 2005. "Caroline, now 58, who he referred to as Candy, remarried and became Mrs Shaw. Vorderman declined, and a search for a new presenter began while the show went into a four-month hiatus. John Richard Whiteley OBE DL (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter, and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show Countdown. Countdown was the launch programme for Channel 4at 4:45 pm on 2 November 1982, and Whiteley was the first person to be seen on the channel (not counting a programme montage). Richard Whiteley is a member of the following lists: 1943 births, Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge and 2005 deaths. His trademarks were his jolly, avuncular manner, hi… The television game show presenter Richard Whiteley … She spoke on Twiiter. "The public perception of him is very different to the private man.