Murray Walker has died

jeroenbourgois 5 years ago |

I was just a bit too young to hear him in action a lot but boy, did I hear his voice often in F1 1997 on PS one. Afterwards while watching various reruns of 90’s F1 races his voice often lit up the scenery. So enthusiastic, brilliant.

Anything can happen in Formula One, and it usually does... Sadly here the inevitable also happened.

Thanks for the legendary game voice samples and a lot more. You were part of my F1 childhood as much as Schumacher was, alongside Martin Brundle.

klelatti 5 years ago |

This BBC piece obliquely refers to Walker serving in a tank regiment during WWII.

In fact trained at Sandhurst, commanded a Sherman tank as a Captain with the Royal Scots Greys (in the 4th Black Rats Armoured Brigade) in the Battle of the Reichswald under Montgomery. Later Eisenhower said this "was some of the fiercest fighting of the whole war".

JdeBP 5 years ago | |

Also he was the creator of that Opal Fruits jingle, according to Wikipedia. I've never imagined it in Murray Walker's voice until today.

monkey_monkey 5 years ago | | |

It's unclear if he came up with the slogan or the melody and the slogan, but this is the jingle, in case people want to know.

https://youtu.be/bu8e84vJoH8?t=22

klelatti 5 years ago | | |

It's a great jingle. Also Opal Fruits such a great name compared to Starburst.

maxwelldone 5 years ago |

Here's a gem from the time when Murray commentated on snooker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-oAsDCGNA

mellosouls 5 years ago |

"A collection of Murrayisms" - couple of funny mistakes and examples of his engaging passionate commentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnXDEw3gqhk

w0mbat 5 years ago |

According to Wikipedia, when he worked in advertising he wrote the slogan "Opal Fruits, made to make your mouth water.".

kinlan 5 years ago | |

I heard he also came up with "A mars a day helps you work rest and play"

gushie 5 years ago | | |

He didn't come up with that one (he wished he did), he just worked on the Mars account at the time

kinlan 5 years ago | | |

Ah right. Well, I wished he did too with the amount of people I've told over the years :D

w0mbat 5 years ago | | |

I heard that Salman Rushdie came up with the "Naughty but nice." slogan for cream cakes.

kinlan 5 years ago |

I can't find it, but I have a memory of him commentating "The race order is 1, 2, 3, 4" - it made me laugh at the time... I could be completely making it up, but I smile and think of Murray every time.

LaserDiscMan 5 years ago |

Classic Walker from the James Hunt days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khA67-r5lSQ

seaman1921 5 years ago |

Don't know who the guy is but for future reference, this kind of HN headline sounds much better than 'XYZ has died'

dang 5 years ago | |

Sorry, but the convention is the opposite here, and I've switched from "passed away" to "has died" now.

Generally we try to avoid euphemisms in HN titles. I understand that tastes and conventions vary widely, though, especially with such an international community. It's impossible to work the same way, or to work well, for everyone.

seaman1921 5 years ago | | |

Thank you for the explanation, and for your service as mod!