Barbara Walters dead at 93
Barbara Walters, 93, who broke barriers for women as the first female co-host of the “Today” show and the first female anchor of a network evening news program, and who as an interviewer of celebrities became one herself, helping to blur the line between news and entertainment, died Friday at her home in Manhattan.
Her publicist, Cindi Berger, confirmed the death but did not cite a cause.
Walters spent more than 50 years in front of the camera and, until she was 84, continued to appear on “The View.” In one-on-one interviews, she was best known for delving, with genteel insistence, into the private lives and emotional states of movie stars, heads of state and other high-profile subjects.
Walters first made her mark on the “Today” show on NBC, where she began appearing regularly on camera in 1964; she was officially named co-host a decade later.
Walters began at NBC as a writer in 1961, the token woman in the “Today” writers’ room. When she left NBC for ABC in 1976 to be a co-anchor of the evening news with Harry Reasoner, she became known as the “million-dollar baby” because of her five-year, $5 million contract.
The move to the coanchor’s chair made her not only the highest-profile female journalist in television history, but also the highest-paid news anchor, male or female, and her arrival signaled something of a cultural shift: the moment when news anchors began to be seen less as infallible authority figures, and more as celebrities. A disgruntled Reasoner privately dismissed her hiring as a gimmick.
Gimmick or not, the ABC experiment failed. Chemistry between the co-anchors was nonexistent, ratings remained low, and in 1978 Reasoner left for CBS, his original television home, and Walters’ role changed from co-anchor to contributor as the network instituted an all-male multiple-anchor format. Shortly after that she began contributing reports to ABC’s newsmagazine show “20/ 20.” In 1984, she became the show’s permanent co-host alongside Hugh Downs, her old “Today” colleague.
But it was her “Barbara Walters Specials” that made her a star, enshrining her as an indefatigable chronicler of the rich, the powerful and the infamous.
At a time when politicians tended to be reserved and celebrities elusive, Walters coaxed kings, presidents and matinee idols to answer intimate questions.
Walters was a celebrity journalist who reveled in the role — driving a motorcycle with Sylvester Stallone, dancing the mambo with Patrick Swayze, riding a patrol boat with Fidel Castro across the Bay of Pigs.
Throughout her career, Walters raised eyebrows — and competitors’ ire — by courting high society and cultivating friendships with high-placed officials. The Shah of Iran was a friend; so were Roy Cohn and Brooke Astor. She was the only female television reporter on President Richard Nixon’s trip to China in 1972.
Her ambition and competitive spirit never let up. She was in Vietnam on vacation when Michael Jackson died in 2009, and sped across 8,000 miles and many time zones to sit with the Jackson family at the memorial in Los Angeles — and to host a special tribute on “20/20.”
“The View” was yet another ratings triumph for Walters, who created it with Bill Geddie and served as an executive producer in addition to frequently appearing on camera as a member of the show’s all-female panel, which over the years also included Whoopi Goldberg, Meredith Vieira and many others. The show, which is in its 24th season, is now seen in several countries and has inspired imitations.
From 1981 to 2010, she presented an annual Oscar-night special that included interviews with nominees and other celebrities. When she announced that the 2010 Oscar special would be her last, she explained that celebrity interviews had become ubiquitous — and that celebrities were not what they used to be.
She did, however, continue her annual “10 Most Fascinating People” specials, which began in 1993.
In her heyday, few turned down the chance to be interviewed by Walters, but there were others who got away. Walters said in her autobiography, “Audition,” that her greatest ungotten “gets” were Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassi, and Diana, Princess of Wales.
“Having it all” was not part of the cultural lexicon when Walters began combining career and family. She was married three times in all, and between marriages she dated many prominent and powerful men In “Audition” she revealed that in 1973 she began a long, secret affair with Sen. Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, who was married.
She is survived by her daughter, Jacqueline Danforth.
— New York Times