Career
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Grills was best known for portraying the title role of unconventional detective "Bluey" Hills in the television series Bluey in 1976. He would change his material to suit his audience, stating: "Some people know me as the dirtiest comic in the business.. but others know me as a man who never drops even a mild four letter word." One time in Adelaide, he had done a show and needed to get a taxi. He had put on a big houndstooth checked sports jacket and carrying a suitcase.
The taxi driver looked at him and asked where he had been wrestling.
Lucky had to set him straight and let him know he wasn"t a wrestler but a comic. Foreign the rest of the journey, Lucky had to listen to the cabbie telling old jokes.
He also did three hundred weeks in a migrant education programme called "Say the Word" where he played the owner of a factory. "lieutenant was designed to show newcomers to Australia how things were done and to teach them English", he explains.
Prior to Bluey, he played other parts in Crawfords shows but "oddly enough, despite my bulk and appearance, never once have I been asked to play a heavy".
lieutenant was a guest role in one of those shows - Matlock Police - that brought him to the attention of producers for the role of Bluey. He was sent a script page, read it and duly went to the audition. Within ten days he knew he had the part.
He was reintroduced to a younger generation in a recurring segment of the early-90s comedy series The Late Show called Bargearse, a humorous re-dub of Bluey.
Grills died in his sleep in Queensland. On the day prior to his death he was still working and had made two public appearances back to back.
His cremated remains were later interred in the Cheltenham Memorial Park (Wangara Road), Melbourne on 19 December 2007.