My friend and colleague Roger Green, who has died aged 76, led a double life in the 1960s and 70s as a Fleet Street journalist by day and professional wrestler by night. Later, he pursued a third career, as an artist.
Born in Havant, Hampshire, to Mervyn, a driver at Portsmouth dockyard, and Winifred (nee Woods), Roger went to Havant County secondary school and Purbrook high school before becoming a trainee reporter on the Portsmouth Evening News in 1959.
A keen bodybuilder, he was attracted to wrestling as a ritualised art form, and became a familiar figure on the British wrestling circuit from the 60s onwards, taking part in televised bouts under the sobriquet the Graduate. He grappled with many of the big names in wrestling, including Jackie Pallo, Giant Haystacks, Mick McManus, Kendo Nagasaki and Big Daddy. But all the while, Roger continued with his journalism. Hack by day, grunt’n’groaner by night, he left the Evening News to become a freelancer, and eventually found a job on the Daily Mirror, specialising in crime reporting.
An interest in art developed into a passion, and in 1967 Roger left journalism to take a pre-diploma in art at Leeds, followed by a degree at Reading University. His tutors included Sir Terry Frost, who became a life-long mentor and inspiration.
Roger then moved to the Midlands in the late 70s to teach social studies to day-release apprentices. He did not enjoy the experience, so moved back into journalism, setting up a news agency in Stafford which provided court coverage for both the local and national media. He created a job for me at that agency, for which I will always be grateful, as it got me started in journalism.
Roger relocated to the Algarve, Portugal, in 1982, where he edited and contributed to several expatriate magazines and continued to paint, producing bold acrylic expressionist abstracts inspired by wrestling. In 2013 he published Memoirs of a TV Wrestler as an ebook – a valuable insider’s view of the golden age of British wrestling.
He also wrote The Man With the Midas Touch (1999), a biography of the timeshare magnate Jack Petchey, and co-authored Ahead of the Game (2010), about the golfing entrepreneur André Jordan.
Roger could not abide dogma, authority, rightwing politics or racism. Behind the hard man exterior was a compassionate soul with his heart in the right place.
He is survived by his children, Tracey and Vincent, from his marriage to Pat (nee Gomer), which ended in divorce, and by his sister, Sue.
