Known as "The Human Headline", controversial broadcaster and campaigner Derryn Hinch enjoyed a life of colourful contradictions.

He was an anti-politician crusader who later became Australia's oldest senator.

He was an animal justice warrior who loved a steak.

And he was a big drinker who went on to be a crusader for somewhat temperate living after receiving a liver transplant.

Derryn Hinch died in his sleep Friday morning, aged 82.

Whether as a talkback titan or a Scrabble swami, here's a top 10 list of Hinch's most memorable and controversial moments over a half-century in the media limelight.

Radio wars with Malcolm and Moonface

Hinch cut his teeth in journalism aged 15 at The Taranaki Herald in his native New Zealand back in 1960.

He hopped across the Tasman in his late teens to become the police roundsman at the now-defunct Sydney Sun newspaper.

But where he made his mark was behind the microphone, becoming a household name in Melbourne in the late 1970s as a controversial talkback radio host.

Then-prime minister Malcolm Fraser boycotted Hinch's talkback program after The Human Headline took the side of his mate —and Fraser's leadership rival — Andrew Peacock.

Way down in the ratings against Bert Newton, Hinch started a mock feud with the ever-popular Moonface.

"Bert Newton was the king of radio in Melbourne. It was a very clever move to take him on and the newspapers loved it," Hinch said in 2021.

"Bert was first in the ratings, I was eighth.

Courting controversy

Hinch was infamous for flouting contempt-of-court laws regarding sex offenders which saw him convicted three times.

He was fined and jailed for 12 days in 1987 for identifying paedophile Catholic priest Michael Glennon while a criminal trial was pending.

The broadcaster also spent five months in home detention in 2011 for breaching suppression orders over two other offenders.

His long-term lawyer, Nick Pullen, said Hinch was not the reckless and unethical journalist the media made him out to be.

"He had a genuine reason for everything he did, whether it be in relation to the law or breaking embargoes or going ahead with stories that no other journalist would touch," Mr Pullen told 774 ABC Melbourne.

"I developed a respect for that."

Getting hitched to Hinch

Hinch was married to four women over the course of his life, including actress Jacki Weaver, whom he wed in 1983.

Weaver separated the following decade from Hinch before they reunited and renewed their vows.

Hinch also had a high-profile relationship with actor and animal rights activist Lynda Stoner, who was his partner at the time of his death this week.

A fun fact for Australian music fans was that Stoner and Hinch appeared in the music video for John Farnham's 1986 smash-hit, You're the Voice.

Hinch and Weaver remained friends long after the final marriage separation, with the broadcaster taking pride in Weaver's Hollywood star billing alongside Robert De Niro in Silver Linings Playbook.

'Shame, shame, shame'

It was the Hinch catchphrase that the broadcaster never actually said. But it was nonetheless made famous by a television comedy parody.

Steve Vizard donned a wig and jet-black fake beard in lampooning Hinch as "Derryn Hunch" for a series of infamous sketches on Fast Forward.

"We literally invented that [on Fast Forward]. It became his catchphrase that people associated with him.

"We had dressing rooms next to each other at Channel Seven for years. We had Tonight Live and we'd do outrageous stunts like brick up his dressing room [live on air].

"He was one of the biggest names in newspapers. Then he became one of the biggest names in radio, and then television.

"Like him or no, polarising no doubt. But you couldn't ignore him."

Misfiring Midday with Derryn Hinch

Turning on the television at midday became a national pastime on The Mike Walsh Show in the 1970s, and he made stars out of fashion doyenne Jeanne Little and musical maestro Geoff Harvey.

Ray Martin took over from Walsh in the mid-1980s after gaining fame as one of the original 60 Minutes reporters.

But it was one of Hinch's great career misfires when he took over the reins from Martin in 1994.

Despite being able to attract big names such as his mate John Farnham to the Channel Nine studios, his switch from nightly tabloid journalism to daytime vaudeville lasted only one year.

Hard Scrabble days for The Human Headline

A prolific author, Hinch lost his mojo behind the microphone and turned to writing books by the late 1990s.

He penned several autobiographies with titles such as Human Headlines, A Human Deadline, and Hinch: How I Hit the Wall and Didn't Bleed.

But his best-selling books were guides to Scrabble, which sold like hotcakes to word nerds around the globe.

One of his last books was Winning Wordle, a linguistic online game he played with gusto right up until his death this week.

Waltzing back into the limelight

Many careers have waltzed back into relevance thanks to the Seven Network's Dancing With The Stars.

Hinch's was no exception.

Dressed in some outfits that would make Austin Powers blush, Hinch featured in the second series of the Daryl Somers-hosted program at the peak of its popularity back in 2005.

Facing competition from luminaries such as Steven Bradbury and Nikki Webster, Hinch and his dance partner Patrice Smith were eliminated before the grand final.

Star-crossed livers

Radio advertising's rivers of gold flowed freely in the hedonistic 1980s and so too did the vintage vino.

Hinch boasted of his liquid lunches during his time as a talkback titan, and his later expressed regret when he was diagnosed with advanced cirrhosis of the liver in 2007.

Ever the open book, Hinch documented the decline of his health in the late 2000s and his life-saving liver transplant in July 2011 in a series of reports for 60 Minutes.

Hinch went on to become a public champion for organ donation — although revelations he had started to drink again erupted in a Twitter spat with an ex-lover in 2016.

Problematic posthumous pronouncements

Known for chasing controversy, Hinch's radio pronouncements shortly after the deaths of cricket star David Hookes and television star Graham Kennedy caused great upset to their family and friends.

Hookes died during a brawl outside a Melbourne pub in 2004 and Hinch claimed Hookes had separated from his wife and was accompanied by a girlfriend.

A year later, Hinch claimed, without evidence, that Kennedy had died of AIDS.

"He misstepped a couple of times in ways that were outrageous," Vizard said.

"The day after Graham Kennedy had died, when he wrongly accused him of dying of AIDS, [it] was just false. He died of pneumonia.

"Yet he would equally pursue [worthy] causes that would garner attention."

Mr Hinch goes to Canberra

Hinch famously said he never voted until he was on the ballot himself.

The veteran campaigner went professional in the mid-2010s, often describing his career trajectory as akin to the Jimmy Stewart classic film, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, about an ordinary man elected to the American senate.

But there was nothing ordinary about Hinch's time on the red benches of the Australian Senate.

Establishing his eponymous Justice Party before the 2016 double-dissolution election, The Human Headline became Senator Hinch, representing Victoria in the federal upper house.

The oldest first-time senator, he was credited with the introduction of a new law restricting the overseas travel of convicted paedophiles.

He was 72 years old when he was first elected to the Australian Senate and had turned 73 by the time he officially took his seat in parliament.