One Beloved Phantom

Much venerated entertainer Rob Guest, 58, who was awarded an OBE for his services to the New Zealand entertainment industry in 1994, has died in Melbourne. Guest had been starring in the musical Wicked. Born in England and raised in New Zealand and Canada, Guest became a pop star in the late 1960s and early ’70s before reinventing himself, first as a television performer, then a musical theatre star. He rose to pop fame in New Zealand in the 1970s when he began performing with Ray Columbus on the television show Happen In. His career gained momentum when he was cast as Jean Valjean in the Australian production of Les Miserables before going on to play the lead role in The Phantom of the Opera a record 2289 times – the world’s longest serving Phantom. Broadcaster Paul Holmes, who presented the television biography show This is Your Life on Guest, said his death was “a terrible shock.” “His death makes me remember how much I liked him … He was a hugely talented man, he was a good bloke,” Holmes said.

Rob Guest: 17 July 1950 – 2 October 2008