death_date birth_place nationality name honorific_suffix birth_date known_for spouse article_title birth_name
25 january 2008 leongatha , victoria australian roc kirby am 14 march 1918 founding village roadshow beatrice kirby roc kirby
 roscoe kirby
roc kirby

roscoe `` roc '' kirby -lrb- 14 march 191825 january 2008 -rrb- was an australian businessman who founded the village roadshow cinema chain and film production company .
roc kirby was born in leongatha , victoria in 1918 .
he entered the cinema business at the bottom end , selling ice creams and sweeping floors at his father 's cinemas on the mornington peninsula , then graduating to managing the small chain of kirby cinemas .
in 1954 , kirby took the financially risky step of constructing a drive-in theatre called `` the village drive-in '' at croydon , and soon afterwards the company owned around 40 drive-in theatres .
with cinema attendances dropping due to the introduction of television , village made a move into the metropolitan `` hard-top '' cinemas , and then into twin cinemas and multiplexes .
in 1989 , village roadshow went public , making an aggressive move into other markets , such as film production , theme parks and radio .
after the public float , the kirby family remained the majority shareholders , owning 51.5 % of the shares in village roadshow .
roc kirby retired as ceo in 1988 , leaving the running of village roadshow to his sons , robert and john , as chairman and deputy chairman , and `` surrogate son '' , graham burke , as managing director .
at his death village roadshow comprised `` a production division , an extensive cinema exhibition business , three theme parks on the gold coast and a stake in the listed radio company austereo '' .
kirby died at the age of 89 on 25 january 2008 , after suffering an illness .
