Jeff Fatt

Jeffrey Wayne Fatt, AM (born 21 July 1953) is an Australian musician and actor. He was a member of the children's group The Wiggles from its founding in 1991 to 2012, and was also in the 1980s and 1990s pop band The Cockroaches. He was the oldest member of the original Wiggles line up.

Early life and education

The second youngest of four, Fatt's Chinese parents Norma Yong Yee and Oscar Fatt owned a large retail store in Casino, New South Wales. Fatt had aspirations to become an architect, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in industrial design. Anthony Field described him as a "bush kid" who "first learned to let his keyboard do most of the talking". He opened a public address equipment business with his brother in Sydney when he began playing keyboard for the rockabilly band the Roadmasters, and was recruited by Anthony and Paul Field to join the Cockroaches.

Fatt was featured on the fourth episode of the twelfth season of '' Who Do You Think You Are?'', where it was revealed that his maternal grandfather, David Yong Yee, immigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1896, becoming a prosperous banana businessman. In 1909, David and his family moved to Hong Kong where they were involved in the creation of the Chen Kwong company, a successful Chinese-Australian retail store and one of the first of its kind. The company was liquidated in 1925 due largely to the Canton-Hong Kong strike, where they returned to Sydney, Australia in 1938. His paternal great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Wright, was born in Middlesex, England and arrived in Melbourne, Australia in 1853 as a domestic servant. Elizabeth married Fatt's great-great-grandfather, Lee Young, a hay and corn storekeeper in Ballarat with origins from Canton, soon thereafter. Lee and Wright later moved to Ararat in 1863, where Lee became a Chinese interpreter for the city's colonial court until 1873. The couple later returned and retired in Ballarat, with Wright dying in 1892 and Young dying in 1899. Their second youngest child of six, and Fatt's paternal great grandmother, Emma, married Chinese Methodist missionary Joseph Tear Tack in 1885 and moved to Tingha until 1896, where they then moved to Darwin and was affected by the 1897 Darwin cyclone, being among the residents who lost their home. They later moved to Cairns in 1900. Joseph died a year later in August 1901 and was survived by Emma and their four children, who returned to Ballarat, then Burwood, before eventually settling in Concord West. Emma later died on 28 October 1948.

The Wiggles

After The Cockroaches disbanded in the early 1990s, Anthony Field asked Fatt, who was renovating his house at the time, to help them record The Wiggles' first album in 1991. Fatt reported, "I got this call from Anthony: 'Hello, Anthony. Go away, go away. I'm not interested,' you know. He's always got these ideas for things. He said, 'I've got this idea, come down to the studio.'" Fatt's response to Field's request was, "Sure but how long will it take?" Field reported that as Fatt had done for the Cockroaches, he was "a musical backbone for the Wiggles".

As a Wiggle, Fatt wore a purple skivvy. He originated the Wiggles character Henry the Octopus and has occasionally voiced Wags the Dog, and performed those voices when other actors took over the roles. Fatt reported that it took twelve months to "learn the language of preschool", including addressing children using the inclusive "everybody", instead of "boys and girls", and that the Wiggles' first performances were traumatic for him because he was not used to being around children.

Fatt's schtick was sleeping at odd times, which led to a Wiggles catchphrase and the title of one of their songs, "Wake Up, Jeff!" Fatt was the oldest Wiggle and was well known for his "laid-back personality", which according to Field, made him "invaluable company on the road". As Sam Moran has said, when referring to the development of the Wiggles' shticks, "Jeff really does fall asleep", and Fatt reported, "The irony is I'm a very light sleeper in the nighttime. I will invariably have a snooze before the show". Fatt was the only member of the Wiggles without a background in early childhood education; he stated that was the reason falling asleep was chosen as his shtick, "because it was a way of getting me involved in the shows without actually having to do anything". Field claimed Fatt's shtick endeared Fatt to their audiences and called it "a simple audience participation and interaction gag we've done since the start of the group". Kathleen Warren, the group's former professor at Macquarie University and their consultant for their shows and DVDs, believed that the shtick empowered children, and Paul Field reported that children in the Wiggles' audience felt "great excitement" and were disappointed if not given the opportunity to help Jeff in this way. Anthony Field reported that although in the early days of the group, they took turns falling asleep, it became Fatt's shtick because "it was a perfect fit".Field, p. 49

Since 1990, Fatt (whose nickname is "Fatty") has taken a photo a day documenting the most eventful thing that has happened to him. He was "a keen surfer".

On 17 May 2012 it was announced that Fatt along with Greg Page and Murray Cook, would be retiring at the end of the year. Wiggles cast member Lachlan Gillespie replaced him as the purple Wiggle. Fatt and the others are expected to remain involved with the creative and production aspects of the group. He continues to perform in reunion shows.

In July 2020, he appeared with the other classic Wiggles in The Soul Movers music video "Circles Baby".

In September 2020, following the announcement of the birth of Gillespie's daughters, Lulu and Lottie, it was announced Gillespie would take some time away from the group in order to spend time with them. As a result, Fatt decided to temporarily replace Gillespie to film The Wiggly World Of Dance Classes, a four-part series.

Fatt has made appearances in the newest Wiggles series, season 3 of Ready, Steady, Wiggle and has returned as the voice of Henry the Octopus.

Awards

In what Paul Field called "one of the highlights of their 15 years of being together", Fatt, along with the original members of the Wiggles, was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Australian Catholic University in 2006. All five members of the band were awarded another honorary doctoral degree in 2009 from Macquarie University. Fatt, along with the other three original Wiggles, was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in January 2010 "for service to the arts, particularly children's entertainment, and to the community as a benefactor and supporter of a range of charities." Fatt also received an ARIA Hall of Fame Award with the Wiggles in 2011.

Health

In early July 2011, Fatt underwent heart surgery after feeling unwell for several weeks and having a blackout. He was diagnosed as having a heart arrhythmia and was fitted with a defibrillator at Sydney's Mater Hospital. His surgery was "urgent but routine" and Fatt was expected to recover completely. He missed the summer US tour as a result, after never missing a show in 20 years.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fatt, Jeff
1953 births
20th-century Australian male actors
20th-century Australian musicians
21st-century accordionists
21st-century Australian male actors
21st-century Australian musicians
21st-century organists
APRA Award winners
Australian children's musicians
Australian male singers
Australian male television actors
Australian organists
Australian people of Chinese descent
Australian people of English descent
Australian pianists
Australian rock keyboardists
Male organists
Male pianists
Members of the Order of Australia
People from the Northern Rivers
Living people
The Wiggles members