TV personality Robin Leach,
whose unmistakable English accent took viewers into the lavish world as the host of the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” has died at age 76.
LAS VEGAS — Robin Leach, whose voice crystallized the opulent 1980s on TV’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” died Friday. He was 76.
Leach’s family said through a public relations firm that he died in Las Vegas, where he made his home.
Leach had a stroke in November while on vacation in Mexico that led to a monthslong recovery, much of which he spent at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio before returning to Las Vegas in June.
The Las Vegas Review Journal, which ran Leach’s columns before he became ill, said he suffered another stroke Monday.
“Champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was Leach’s sign-off at the end of every episode of his syndicated show’s decadelong run that began in 1984.
The catchphrase captured excesses and sometimes gaudy style of the 1980s. Leach appeared occasionally on the show, but he and his unmistakable English-accent narrated, taking wishful viewers on tours of mansions with diamond-crusted chandeliers, yachts with Jacuzzis, and champagne that ran to four figures.
Leach and producer Al Masini coined the catchphrase and conceived of the show.
“He asked me if I could get magnates T. Boone Pickens or Sam Walton to do the show,” Leach told The Huffington Post in 2016. “In my naivete, I said, ‘Of course.’ And thus, ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.’ ”
The show was the core of Leach’s career that spanned six decades and included stints with CNN, People magazine, “Entertainment Tonight” and the Daily Mail, where he began as a writer in Britain at 18.
In the mid-1970s, he tried out TV as a contributor to “AM Los Angeles” with hosts Regis Philbin and Sarah Purcell, and found his calling. He became a regular on morning news and entertainment shows, practicing tabloid journalism that was more celebratory and lighthearted than tawdry. He often became friends with the celebrities he covered.
Then, in 1984, he landed “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and gained his own fame.
The gaudy show became wildly popular, but never with critics. “They wrote that television had reached an all-time-low,” Leach told The Huffington Post. “But I looked at the ratings every Monday morning, and I was rubbing my hands with glee.”
In 1999, Leach went to Las Vegas to work with celebrity chefs at the Venetian casino-resort, and made the move permanent, becoming a fixture in the city as he covered its entertainment and lifestyles for America Online and his own website. He also wrote for Las Vegas newspapers.
He was among the founders of the Food Network, selling his equity for a big payday when the channel took off.
Married once and divorced, Leach spent much of his later years with his three sons, Steven, Rick and Greg, and several grandchildren.