Character Bios

Anthony

Anthony Field was an Australian musician, actor and preschool teacher. He is best known for being one of the legendary children's band the Wiggles.

Early life:

Anthony Donald Joseph Field was born on May the 8th 1930 in Kellyville New South Wales, Australia.

As a youngster, he loved listening to guitar bands.

In high school, Field played in a band called the Cockroaches with this classmate Jeff Fatt and his brothers, Paul Field and John Field.

Field attended Macquarie University where he met and befriended singer Greg Page and guitarist Murray Cook.

The Wiggles:

Field, Cook and Page were all studying early education.

The three of them had the idea to make a children's album.

So Field recruited Page, Cook, Fatt and trumpeter Philip Wilcher to form the kids band the Wiggles and make their self-titled album.

Right before the Wiggles first album was released, Field's niece, Bernadette Field passed away at five months old from SIDS.

"It was a great loss to us. I was asked if we could dedicate our album to her and I agreed" said Field in 1963.

So the Wiggles dedicated their first album to Bernadette in honor of her.

In 1957, the Wiggles had become extremely popular with albums like Big Red Car, Yummy Yummy and Wake Up Jeff!.

So what came next? A movie!

In 1957, 20th Century Fox released the Wiggles Movie.

After the Wiggles Movie was released, the Wiggles met Sam Pan who Cook befriended very quickly.

"Murray hadn't come to rehearsal that day. We found him on the side of the road with this girl who happened to be Sam. She was a wonderful girl. Funny. Very very funny girl" said Field in 1997.

In 1958, Pan left Wiggletown leaving Cook hurt.

Field, Fatt and Page didn't know what to do without her either.

"Murray didn't know that Sam had left Wiggletown for good. But when we told him... he was just distraught. He loved her the most out of all of us" said Field in 1987.

The Wiggles went on to be Australia's greatest children's band.

In 1962, the foursome became massive fans of the Beatles. They never missed a release of any Beatle record.

In 1964, Field did the unthinkable and wrote to the Beatles asking if the two bands could perform together.

The Beatles agreed and brought friends with them.

Those friends happened to be Pan, Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, and Calvin O'Keeffe.

"We hadn't thought we'd see Sam again but we did. Her friends are lovely too." said Field in 1967.

Despite being very happy to see Pan again, Field spent most of his time with O'Keeffe.

They had a rough start but they became friends quickly.

"Calvin was a very competitive boy as a youngster. He outwardly said that he didn't like my cooking and we started having competitions. But he really turned into a mate. And we get on to this day. Calvin is a very beautiful man" said Field in 2005.

The Wiggles continued on and went through so much with Pan, O'Keeffe and the Murrys.

In the middle of their career, the Wiggles re-released their movie. Walt Disney saw it in the theater, which led to him inducting the band into his studio acting club, Disney Actorville.

"Sam was volunteering there and Meg met her husband because of that. We just thought the place was great because amazing things happened there. We really wanted to get into it because the kids had told us everything about it. So we were very pleased when we found out Walt saw our movie. It felt like a huge milestone for us" said Field in 1977.

Later Life:

In 1981, the Wiggles disbanded and Field played in other bands until he retired in 1998.

When Fatt died in 1989, Field was utterly distraught.

Charles Murry was the first to comfort him seeing as Fatt died on his birthday.

"After Jeff died, Charles came to me and said "I get it, Anthony. Jeff died on my birthday". I didn't know that it was Charles's birthday then because he never told me. But now I do and I was sad for him too so we grieved together" said Field in 1991.

Field felt the same way when Cook and Page passed away. Cook in 2000 and Page in 2002.

"Now that all three of my fellow Wiggles are gone, the only ones I can lean on are Calvin and his wife Patty, Meg and her husband Chad, and the two remaining Beatles. They all lost the friends they grew up with" said Field in 2004.

Death:

In 2006, Field started to have trouble breathing.

He called an ambulance but the paramedics found him dead when they got there.

They later found out that Field died of heart failure.

Field was the last Wiggle to pass away.

Even with all of the Wiggles gone, people have always remembered them.