Norris McWhirter

Norris Dewar McWhirter, CBE (August 12, 1925 - April 19, 2004) was a writer, right wing political activist and television presenter. He and his twin brother, Ross McWhirter, were known internationally for the Guinness Book of Records, a book they wrote and annually updated together (until Ross' 1975 assassination, after which Norris continued alone) between 1955 and 1985.

Record Breakers and later events

Both brothers were regulars on the BBC show Record Breakers. After Ross's death, McWhirter continued to appear on the show, eventually making him one of the most recognisable people on children's television in the 1970s and 1980s. Norris McWhirter was made a CBE in 1980.

Related Topics:
Record Breakers - 1980s - 1980

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In 1985 he launched an unsuccessful defamation case against the Independent Broadcasting Authority for the TV programme Spitting Image which had inserted a subliminal image of McWhirter's face imposed on the body of a naked woman.

Related Topics:
1985 - Independent Broadcasting Authority - Spitting Image - Subliminal image

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He retired from the Guinness Book of Records in 1985 and from Record Breakers in 1994. Afterwards, he continued to write, editing a new reference book, his Book of Millennium Records, in 1999.

Related Topics:
1985 - 1994 - 1999

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Norris McWhirter died from a heart attack following a tennis match, at his home in Wiltshire, on the 19 April 2004. He was aged 78.

Related Topics:
Wiltshire - 19 April - 2004

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