Among all the bitter tears, on some mezzanine floor in the many stages of grief, was this hardest of ironies: everyone who knew Jesse Baird knew one day he’d be a household name.
Just not like this.
Jesse Baird in the Network 10 newsroom in Sydney.
Jesse Baird was a ridiculous talent. He had a priceless gift for television, a sexy, effortless charm that flowed through all the cold mechanics of broadcasting to get you wherever you watched.
Old TV hands talk of those who “break through the glass”. With Jesse, there was no glass.
That his fame will not be crowned with a Gold Logie, or a Hollywood contract, but exists now in the cold processes of a prosecution brief, is just one of the many things stolen from Jesse and from those who loved him.
As a 63-year-old grandfather who last danced to Marvin Gaye on a turntable, I was not naturally in Jesse’s orbit. But Channel 10’s Sydney newsroom is open plan, Jesse’s desk was three metres from mine, and he shone his light on everyone indiscriminately. He was humble, brilliant, mischievous. Utterly adored.
Jesse Baird (front row, left) with his Studio 10 colleagues in 2022.
He loved what he did. He loved life. He had the vibrating energy of a young and beautiful man, who lived without enemies or a care in the world. Except, of course, it will be alleged that he did have an enemy, a man so entranced by Jesse that he would rather kill him than let him live free.
Let the courts work all that out.
We always knew Jesse Baird would be famous, just not like this
10
36
04.03.2024
Among all the bitter tears, on some mezzanine floor in the many stages of grief, was this hardest of ironies: everyone who knew Jesse Baird knew one day he’d be a household name.
Just not like this.
Jesse Baird in the Network 10 newsroom in Sydney.
Jesse Baird was a ridiculous talent. He had a priceless gift for television, a sexy, effortless charm that........
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