At the age of 77, Ray Meagher was as surprised as anyone to be nominated for another Gold Logie.
Ray, one of the industry’s longest-serving actors, who has participated in every season of Home and Away from the show’s inception in 1988, assumed his ‘golden days’ were finished after his most recent huge triumph in 2010.
The actor, who has played Alf Stewart for 34 years, stunned the industry when he won the award over a plethora of favourites, including Rebecca Gibney and Rove McManus.
Now he’s been nominated for the top award once more, and he’ll be a hot candidate alongside Sonia Kruger and Tom Gleeson at the Gold Coast awards presentation on June 19.
The gold statuette will also be contested by Julia Morris and Hamish Blake.
‘It felt pretty good but it’s also a bit of a surprise,’ Ray told TV Week of his nomination, which was announced back on May 15.
‘I sort of thought my golden days were over 12 years ago when I won it.
‘I don’t see myself as a Gold Logie sort of a nominee. There are always plenty of people more deserving.’
And, as self-deprecating as ever, the soap icon insists he’ll be discreetly rooting for Sonia Kruger to win the Gold Logie.
Sonia, who had never been nominated for a Gold Logie before, was taken aback when she found out she was in the running in early May.
The Big Brother presenter, who spoke on The Morning Show with hosts Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur, claimed she was taken aback by the nomination, which came 30 years after she initially rose to popularity as Tina Sparkle in Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom.
‘It was really quite bizarre, I literally went into shock when heard the news. I had to be placed in the recovery position, and for me, that’s lying on my daybed with an Aperol Spritz in my hand,’ she said.
‘Apparently, in the odds of the sporting bet, I’m about 100 to one [of winning the Gold Logie] – a rank outsider.
‘So what I’m thinking is, can I bet on myself, right? And then somehow jig the system, is this wrong is this like insider trading?’