Rolf Kirkvaag

Rolf Kirkvaag (20 September 1920 – 24 January 2003) was a Norwegian journalist, and a radio and TV personality. He worked for NRK, the Norwegian state broadcasting network, between 1947 and 1959, and 1969 and 1990. From 1972 to 1985 he was entertainment director.

Already a popular public persona, his fame grew enormously after an incident in 1956. Kirkvaag was among the passengers on a Braathens SAFE plane that crashed by Hommelfjell, in what is known as the Hummelfjell Accident. Two people were dead and ten still alive after the crash. Kirkvaag – with a broken bone in his foot – and another passenger had to walk for help. The incident made Kirkvaag a national hero, and he has since been referred to as Norway's first celebrity. Rolf Kirkvaag's son, Trond Kirkvaag, was a well-known television comedian. Trond, who died in 2007, wrote a controversial biography of his father shortly before his own death. Here he described Rolf's darker side, and alleged that he had been an emotionally distant and occasionally violent father.