Johnny O'Keefe
Privacy Level: Open (White)

John Michael O'Keefe (1935 - 1978)

John Michael (Johnny) "The Wild One, J O'K" O'Keefe
Born in Bondi Junction, New South Wales, Australiamap
Ancestors ancestors
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died at age 43 in Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australiamap
Problems/Questions Profile manager: Peter Jones private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 20 Dec 2018
This page has been accessed 4,782 times.

Biography

Notables Project
Johnny O'Keefe is Notable.

Johnny O'Keefe was an Australian Rock 'n Roll star, with hits including 'Shake Baby Shake' in 1957 and 'Shout' and 'She's my Baby' in 1959. He was inducted into the 'ARIA Hall of Fame' in 1988.

Johnny was born in 1935, the second of three children of Raymond Moran O'Keefe and Thelma Edna née Kennedy.

He attended the local Catholic primary school and completed his secondary schooling at Waverley College. He made his stage debut at the age of four when he played the role of 'Dopey' in the Waverley College production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but being unable to read or memorise the script, he improvised his part.

In December 1952 Johnny was called up for 'National Service'. He was stationed at Richmond Airbase and served his six-month period in two blocks, from December 1952 and December 1953.

Johnny's life changed irrevocably after seeing and hearing Bill Haley (1925 - 1981) singing Rock Around the Clock in the film Blackboard Jungle in June 1955. In September 1956 O'Keefe co-founded Australia's first rock'n'roll band, The Dee Jays. O'Keefe and the Dee Jays quickly attracted a strong local following, due in large measure to O'Keefe's magnetic personality and his dynamic stage performances.

O'Keefe's debut single was released in July 1957 but it failed to chart.

In 1958 he married Marianne Renate Willinzik.[1] They had three children together:[2]

  1. John Jr. [born around 1959]
  2. Victoria (Vicky) [born around 1961]
  3. Peter [born around 1963]

In 1959 O'Keefe performed the song Shout on his Australian TV show Six O'Clock Rock. He then released it as a single, which reached number two in Australia.

Johnny and Marianne divorced in 1966[3] due to the pressure of O'Keefe's career.

Johnny next married Maureen Joan Maricic in 1975.[4]

Johnny O'Keefe died as a result of a drug overdose on 6 October 1978 at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital.[5] He is buried at Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium, North Ryde.[6]

Legacy

In 1986 punk legend Iggy Pop recorded a cover version of O'Keefe's signature tune Wild One under the title Real Wild Child. Samples from the Iggy Pop version were incorporated into the theme music for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's long-running music video show Rage, which premiered in 1987, and the opening credits include footage of O'Keefe on stage.
Johnny was posthumously inducted into the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame on its inception in 1988.[7]
In 1998, Australia Post issued a stamp celebrating the early years of Australian rock'n'roll. The first stamp in the series commemorated O'Keefe's rise to stardom in 1958.
In 2020, O'Keefe was listed at number 39 in Rolling Stone Australia's 50 Greatest Australian Artists of All Time issue.

Sources

  1. NSW BDM marriage reg. no. 15297/1958, of O'KEEFE, JOHN MICHAEL, and WILLINZIK, MARIANNE RENATE, registered at SYDNEY [St Therese's Catholic Church, Dover Heights, 2 August 1958]
  2. The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982) Wed 13 Sep 1978 Page 55
  3. The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) Thu 15 Dec 1966 Page 20
  4. Michael Sturma, 'O'Keefe, John Michael (Johnny) (1935–1978)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/okeefe-john-michael-johnny-11293/text20153, published first in hardcopy 2000, accessed online 26 July 2019 [14 February 1975 at the Masonic Hall, Waverley, New South Wales]
  5. NSW BDM death registration of O'KEEFE, JOHN MICHAEL, reg. no. 23943/1978, showing parents RAYMOND MORAN and THELMA
  6. Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 December 2018), memorial page for Johnny O'Keefe (19 Jan 1935–6 Oct 1978), Find A Grave Memorial no. 11015244, citing Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium, North Ryde, Ryde City, New South Wales, Australia ; Maintained by Find A Grave. Find A Grave: Memorial #11015244
  7. ARIA Hall of Fame: List of Inductees

See also:





Is Johnny your relative? Please don't go away!
 star icon Login to collaborate or comment, or
 star icon contact private message the profile manager, or
 star icon ask our community of genealogists a question.
Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com

DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Johnny by comparing test results with other carriers of his ancestors' Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Johnny:

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.



Comments: 2

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.
Hello Profile Managers!

We are featuring this profile in the Connection Finder this week. Between now and Wednesday is a good time to take a look at the sources and biography to see if there are updates and improvements that need made, especially those that will bring it up to WikiTree Style Guide standards. We know it's short notice, so don't fret too much. Just do what you can.

Thanks!

Abby

posted by Abby (Brown) Glann