Vale legendary Aussie expat art director and TVC director Peter Cherry – co-founder of AWARD
Many in the Australian and US industry will be saddened to hear of the passing of legendary art director and TVC director Peter Cherry, who has died in the US after a cardiac arrest.
Aussie-born Cherry made his rep as a brilliant art director at the legendary CDP in London, working on the multi-awarded Benson & Hedges account amongst others, before forming his own legendary agency Cherry, Hedger, Seymour in partnership with account man Dick Hedger and copywriter Geoff Seymour.
In the late 70s Cherry returned to Australia to Clemenger in Sydney, teamed with ECD Paul Jones. While at Clems he and Jones co-founded AWARD, the Australian Writers and Art Directors Association, with a few others. Their vision for AWARD was inspiring, no doubt encouraging many young people over the years to make a career in this wonderful business.
In the 80s he switched to directing commercials, forming Ibbetson Cherry, one of the most successful production companies in Australia, with producer Paul Ibbetson.
Later, in partnership with Angela Bray, he launched the equally successful Independent films.
Cherry, together with the late, great DoP John Ashenhurst, then travelled the world for over ten years doing work with Megan Gale (Omnicom), GM, Ford, Coke and many other clients for Australia, Singapore, US, Italy, China and Thailand.
Most recently Cherry resided in the US and retired ten years ago.
Says New York based Aussie expat Matt Eastwood on Facebook: “Pete was always so generous with his talent. When Shane Gibson and I were a couple of very young creatives, we did a huge shoot with him. He treated us like equals. And not the kids we were. And he always made sure there was a chopper shot. Loved it. A true legend.”
More FB tributes:
Ron Mather: “That’s very sad news. Good mate, great talent.”
Rob Henderson: “Very sorry to hear that. Pete was a great talent and gave a lot to the industry. He will be missed.”
Mike Preston: “Very sad news. Very lucky to have worked him when he directed a few spots for me. A great talent. R.I.P Pete.”
Adrian Pritchard: “That’s so sad. Pete was a legend of our business. As was Jonesy. A brilliant talent in agency land then a fabulous director. Last saw him 20 odd years back when he directed a car spot for me. It was brilliantly shot as you would expect. Vale Pete.”
Mike Doyle: “He and I go way back to London and CDP in the 1970s when we worked together on Benson & Hedges. He was a master of good taste. He offered me a job to work in Sydney with him and Paul Jones, which I declined as I was still in Heaven at CDP. I had lunch with Pete and Paul Ibbetson in my first week in Sydney while working at Clemenger. Ibbo remarked, “You’re too late Irish, you missed it all.” I don’t regret the move, but I do regret not getting to work with Pete as a director. Long may he rest in Peace in the Creative Department of Heaven.”
16 Comments
One of the few commercials directors to have a camera move named after him. Vale Peter.
I’d imagine Mickey Rooney was happy to have relinquished said shot title.
Truely an accolade to be proud of.
RIP Mate & thank you for all you taught me about Directing during my Ibbetson Cherry days.
“Jonesy introduced me to Pete such a long time ago. At first, I was a bit frightened of him, but as I found out, Pete was gentle, empathetic, intuitive and generous with his time and talent. He was such a wonderful human being and I will always remember him as such. Vale Peter.
Used to work with pete a lot when he was working as an art director at the holy grail of london advertising,cdp. He was a regular at tony may’s photo studio in portland mews, soho,in the days when art directors had the luxury of leaving a stills set up for a week or more and coming and tweaking it every day, waiting 4 hours for 10×8 or 5×4 film processing and then tweaking it some more. When I came to Sydney,Pete had switched to directing and David Deneen,Ray Lawrence and Peter Cherry were the directors that agencies wanted to work with.
rip pete.
I did a lot of Jobs with Pete we became good friends, but sadly lost touch over the last couple of years. Very sad to hear the news. Not easy to work with but always a laugh, and always delivered beyond expectation. And his shoot boards! Works of art! I wish I had a couple of them. See ya Pete.
Not just a great director but a real contributor. Could turn shit into chocolate.
One of the most interesting, funny and engaging personalities I have met and worked with in advertising.
I was lucky enough to do a blockbuster job with him once, and he treated me with respect, encouragement and warmth… he made me feel important when I was maybe low on confidence, and at a critical point in my career.
He had a wicked, sharp sense of humour and could both take the piss, and happily have it taken out of him too.
A great bloke, Pete Cherry.
RIP.
Enjoyed working with Pete, some interesting dinners, biggest compliment, he let me do some storyboards for him, good times, part of the.rich tapestry of ad life back then.
The meticulous ‘C boards’ (that Wayne famously adopted), the mid client ppm pause and glare, the on set sausage roll and ciggies (best to avoid that Kevin Varnes stuff), and the time I had to explain why we needed to completely re grade an entire Qantas ad “what the fuck do you mean it’s too dark mate?”. But under all that thunder lay a wink and a chuckle. Great memories. Vale.
Remember it well Rod. That job was the only Pete job that induced tears but it wasn’t because of Pete. In fact he was so great to me when I started PMing and am forever thankful for the exactness that I learned and can occasionally still pull out when required (emphasis on occasionally). In fact in some ways he made those huge jobs attainable with his thorough briefings, detailed boards and knowing exactly what he wanted. Learnt so much from him and forever thankful. RIP Pete and much love to Cindy xxxx Hope you are up there reminiscing with Asho, Chris and Garry.
The best thing about being old is having been young enough to have worked and played with exceptionally talented characters like Peter. Amazing memories! RIP.
About a year or so ago Pete went back in time to his old designing/art direction days. We were working on a cartoon book and Pete wanted to put his old skills to use with, according to him, the legendary CDP Creative Director Colin Millward looking over his shoulder. I would jokingly ask “Would Colin like this?” and get a “Yeah” or a “Nah, I’ll do it again.” It was great to open an email to see his thinking and execution. He was super enthusiastic about going back in time and was thoroughly enjoying the work he was doing. Unfortunately time had a change of plan. Vale Pete.
He went through $10,000 of CO2 on a one day shoot I was lucky enough to a part of. Brilliant. Enough said.
I had the great pleasure to work with Pete on countless jobs. I learned so much from him. What an amazing talent he had. He always had immense passion for his craft, there was no cutting corners with Peter. After we both ended up back to the states we became close friends. We miss him greatly. The world is a less interesting place without him. RIP