Australian music promoter and celebrity agent Harry M Miller laid down specific plans for his funeral before he passed away at age 84.

The “visionary” entrepreneur “died peacefully” in Sydney on Wednesday, according to a statement from HMMG, the agency he founded.

“By his side were his long-term partner Simmone Logue, daughters Justine, Brook and Lauren and their mother Wendy,” said the statement from Lauren Miller, chief executive of HMMG.

The businessman’s ideal send off was outlined in his autobiography: “It’s the producer in me, I guess”.

He wans his ashes to be scattered down the cliff in front of his house at Wombarra, north of Wollongong.

“There will be no funeral service as such, but a memorial, preferably at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney,” he wrote.

“People will get up and speak and sing and they should all have a drink without having to leave the premises.”

Public figures were quick to pay respect:

Harry M. Miller and I crossed the ditch from NZ, seeking fame and fortune, around the same time in 1963. A favourite line in later years: “If you shake hands with Harry, count your fingers”.

— Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) July 4, 2018

Some of most wonderful experiences I have had in the theatre were thanks to Harry M Miller. The original Jesus Christ Superstar with Trevor White, Jon English and Marcia Hines and then round 2 with John Farnham, Jon Stevens and Kate Ceberano. RIP Harry. #HarryMMiller

— Angela Bishop OAM (@AngelaBishop) July 4, 2018

Miller’s life was complicated: he was a one-time director of Qantas, a convict, a puppet master in the Australian showbiz industry whose self-confessed “wandering eye” saw three marriages collapse.

The charismatic businessman’s stable of celebrities included Lindy Chamberlain, racing trainer Gai Waterhouse, fashion entrepreneur Maggie Tabberer, Big Brother contestants and Judy Moran, wife of Melbourne underworld figure Lewis Moran. 

He organised the Queen’s Birthday Silver Jubilee celebrations in Australia in 1977 and also negotiated the “cash for comment” deals for broadcaster Alan Jones.

Miller attracted criticism for making money from tragedy and sensation. He represented Stuart Diver, who survived the 1997 Thredbo disaster, and masterminded the funeral of INXS singer Michael Hutchence.

In 2010, Miller told the ABC’s Talking Heads that his greatest success was handling Lindy Chamberlain when she was freed after being wrongfully jailed over the death of her daughter Azaria.

He described his role as “broker/salesman”: “What the media quickly learned, thank God, was that if they didn’t play the game, they weren’t even in the game.”

Harry Maurice Miller was born in Auckland on January 6, 1934, the only child of Jewish parents, Sadie and Jim Miller.

His first signing  was four Maori singers known as the Howard Morrison Quartet and first big-name act was US jazz musician Louis Armstrong, who toured Australia in 1963, the same year Miller moved to Australia.

Miller brought out Judy Garland to do three concerts in 1964, as well as The Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, The Beach Boys and Sonny and Cher.

In 1969 he went to Boston to do auditions for Hair, hiring the 16-year-old Marcia Hines, not realising she was pregnant. Miller became Hines’ guardian until she turned 21.

Miller followed Hair with Jesus Christ Superstar and Rocky Horror Show.

In 1978 he established ticketing company Computicket, but it went into receivership within six months.

In 1982 Miller was convicted on five charges of fraudulent misappropriation of $728,000 in connection with Computicket. He spent 10 months in Long Bay and Cessnock jails.

On Talking Heads in 2010 he recalled he had “cried every day” in jail – but continued to run his clients’ careers from his cell: “You just don’t fall and crumble just because something goes wrong.”

Miller’s private life was also tricky. “My wandering eye is something I have struggled to control all my adult life,” he wrote in his autobiography.

His first marriage, in 1957 to Zoe von Uht, resulted in a son, Simon, but ended in 1962.

He married American Patricia Mitchell in 1963, but that ended unhappily four years later when she took their two children back to the US.

In 1972, Miller married vet Wendy Paul and they had daughters Brook and Lauren. During the Computicket scandal, Wendy ran the Harry M Miller Group and their NSW cattle property.

The marriage was followed by an 11-year relationship with model Deborah Hutton. 

In the late 1990s, Miller met society caterer Simmone Logue, who he described in 2010 as “the love of my life”.

Two years after he retired in 2009, Miller was diagnosed with vascular dementia. He moved into an aged-care facility but spent weekends with Logue.

The funeral arrangements will be confirmed later.

-with agencies