Kevin "Big Kev" McQuay was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n cleaning products entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

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Television career

His career on television took off in the 1990s as a regular guest on the infomercial component of Good Morning Australia

Good Morning Australia

Good Morning Australia from Network Ten was the name of two different programs. This article is for Bert Newton's morning program, not to be confused with the breakfast news program of the same name....

. The former Carey Grammar student built up a good rapport with its host, Bert Newton

Bert Newton

Albert Watson "Bert" Newton, AM, MBE is an Australian television personality, known for hosting television series such as In Melbourne Tonight, Good Morning Australia and 20 to 1. Newton has also hosted the Logie Awards on numerous occasions through his career.-Early life:Newton was born in...

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Kev was a flamboyant party animal who loved a drink with his brother "little Steve", and weighed 130 kilograms (286.6 lb). His catchphrases were "I'm excited!" and "Big Kev Knows". He continued to appear on Good Morning Australia into the early-mid 2000s.

Big Kev was well known in the V8 Supercar

V8 Supercar

V8 Supercars is a touring car racing category based in Australia and run as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile regulations...

 community as the sponsor of Paul Morris Motorsport during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

Big Kev's Ltd.

In 2001 to 2002 he hit his peak as an advertiser appearing on commercials promoting "Big Kev's" range of cleaning products for kitchen and laundry. He appeared on television commercials wearing a big blue shirt with an Australian flag design, aiming to promote the fact that Big Kev's products were 100% Australian-owned and not run by overseas companies. At one point he even hosted a half-hour low budget variety show on late night television. In August 2001 he floated his company, Big Kev's Ltd, on the Australian Stock Exchange

Australian Stock Exchange

The Australian Securities Exchange was created by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in July 2006. It is the primary stock exchange group in Australia....

. The company initially did well, but eventually ran into major financial problems. In November 2004, Big Kev resigned from the position of chairman of Big Kev's Ltd, deciding to cut his losses.

Death

McQuay died at 8.30pm on December 5, 2005 in the Allamanda Private Hospital on the Gold Coast. The cause of death was confirmed as a heart attack caused by a staph infection

Staphylococcal infection

Staphylococcus is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria which includes several species that can cause a wide variety of infections in humans and other animals through either toxin production or invasion....

. He left behind his wife Michelle and three sons.