Actor loses fight for Skippy profits

ONE of the stars of Australian television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo has lost a court battle for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from the show.

Tony Bonner, who played ranger and helicopter pilot Jerry King in the popular 1960s children's show, took Fauna Productions to court claiming he had missed out on a reasonable share of the profits.

Bonner was seeking a $A750,000 pay-out for residual profits generated by the show, including sales of merchandise and DVDs.

But Supreme Court Justice Ian Gzell dismissed the case, finding Bonner had no rights to the show's earnings.

"Under the (employment) agreement Mr Bonner assigned to Fauna the sole and absolute rights throughout the world to all results and proceeds of the services rendered by him," Gzell said.

"There was no incurrence of expenditure for which Mr Bonner was not paid, nor did he perform work for no consideration."