Barbara Walters facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Barbara Walters
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Walters in 1979
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| Born |
Barbara Jill Walters
September 25, 1929 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Died | December 30, 2022 (aged 93) New York City, U.S.
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| Education | Sarah Lawrence College (BA) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1951–2016 |
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Notable credit(s)
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| Spouse(s) |
Robert Henry Katz
(m. 1955; annulled 1957)Lee Guber
(m. 1963; div. 1976)Merv Adelson
(m. 1981; div. 1984)
(m. 1986; div. 1992) |
| Children | 1 |
Barbara Jill Walters (September 25, 1929 – December 30, 2022) was a famous American journalist and television personality. She was known for her great interviewing skills and for being very popular with viewers.
Walters hosted many TV shows. These included Today, the ABC Evening News, 20/20, and The View. She worked as a journalist from 1951 until she retired in 2015.
Barbara Walters started her career on The Today Show in the early 1960s. She began as a writer and producer for stories about women. Viewers really liked her, so she got more time on air. In 1974, she became the co-host of Today. She was the first woman to hold this title on an American news program.
In 1976, she made history again. She became the first female co-anchor of a network evening news program. This was on the ABC Evening News with Harry Reasoner. Walters also worked as a producer and co-host on the ABC news show 20/20 from 1979 to 2004. She was also famous for her yearly special, Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People.
Walters interviewed every U.S. president and first lady from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. She also interviewed Donald Trump and Joe Biden before they became presidents.
She created, produced, and co-hosted the ABC daytime talk show The View. She appeared on the show from 1997 until she retired in 2014. After that, she still hosted special reports for 20/20. Her last time on air for ABC News was in 2015. Her final public appearance was in 2016.
Walters was honored many times for her work. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2007, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Barbara Jill Walters was born in Boston on September 25, 1929. Her parents were Dena and Lou Walters. Both of her parents were children of Jewish immigrants from Russia. Her father, Lou Walters, was born in London in 1898. He moved to New York City with his father and two brothers in 1909.
During Barbara's childhood, her father managed the Latin Quarter nightclub in Boston. In 1942, he opened a famous New York location for the club. He also produced Broadway shows, like the Ziegfeld Follies of 1943. He was also the Entertainment Director for the Tropicana Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. He brought the Folies Bergère show from Paris to Las Vegas.
Walters' brother, Burton, died in 1944. Her older sister, Jacqueline, was born with intellectual disabilities and passed away in 1985. Barbara said her father gained and lost money many times in show business. He was a booking agent, and his job was not always steady. She remembered her father taking her to rehearsals for his shows. The performers would make a fuss over her.
Walters said that being around celebrities when she was young made her not "in awe" of them. When she was young, her father lost his nightclubs and their home in Central Park West. She recalled that her father faced difficulties, and they lost their home and car.
Walters went to several schools. She attended public school in Brookline, Massachusetts, and later in Miami Beach, Florida. She also went to Ethical Culture Fieldston School and Birch Wathen School in New York City. She graduated in 1947. In 1951, she earned a degree in English from Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York.
Career Highlights
Starting Her Career
After college, Walters worked at a small advertising agency in New York City. Then, she started working at WNBT-TV (now WNBC), which was an NBC network station. She did publicity and wrote press releases. In 1953, she began producing a children's show called Ask the Camera. She also produced for TV host Igor Cassini. Later, she worked at WPIX and CBS.
Her Time on The Today Show
In 1961, Walters joined NBC's The Today Show as a writer and researcher. She soon became the show's "Today Girl." This role involved lighter stories and weather reports. In her book, she explained that back then, people thought women couldn't report "hard news." Other "Today Girls" included Florence Henderson and Lee Meriwether. Within a year, she became a reporter-at-large. She developed, wrote, and edited her own reports and interviews.
Starting in 1971, Walters hosted her own local NBC show, Not for Women Only. This show aired in the mornings after The Today Show. Walters had a good relationship with host Hugh Downs. When Frank McGee became host in 1971, he insisted on asking the first three questions in joint interviews. Walters was not named co-host until McGee's death in 1974. Then, NBC officially made her the program's first female co-host.
Moving to ABC News
Walters and Harry Reasoner co-anchored the ABC Evening News from 1976 to 1978. Reasoner found it difficult to work with a co-anchor. Walters said the tension was because Reasoner didn't want a co-anchor and was unhappy at ABC. It wasn't because he disliked her personally. Years later, in 1981, Walters and Reasoner had a friendly interview on 20/20.
In 1979, Walters reunited with her former The Today Show host, Hugh Downs, on the ABC news show 20/20. During her career at ABC, Walters appeared on many ABC news specials. These included presidential inaugurations and coverage of the September 11 attacks. She was also chosen to moderate the third and final debate between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford during the 1976 presidential election. In 1984, she moderated another presidential debate.
Famous Interviews
Walters was famous for her "personality journalism" and getting exclusive interviews. In November 1977, she got a joint interview with Egypt's president, Anwar Al Sadat, and Israel's Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. She interviewed many world leaders. These included the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, Empress Farah Pahlavi. She also interviewed Russia's Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, China's Jiang Zemin, the UK's Margaret Thatcher, and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Other notable interviews included India's Indira Gandhi, Czechoslovakia's Václav Havel, Libya's Muammar al-Gaddafi, King Hussein of Jordan, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Walters also interviewed famous people like pop icon Michael Jackson, actress Katharine Hepburn, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and Sir Laurence Olivier. Walters said her most inspiring interview was with Robert Smithdas. He was a deaf-blind man who helped others with the same conditions.
Walters was sometimes made fun of for asking actress Katharine Hepburn, "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" On her last 20/20 episode, Walters showed the interview. Hepburn said she felt like a strong tree in her old age. Walters then asked, "What kind of a tree?" Hepburn replied, "an oak," because they don't get Dutch elm disease. Walters said Hepburn often refused her interview requests. When Hepburn finally agreed, she wanted to meet Walters first. Hepburn was known for being direct.
Walters' TV special about Cuban leader Fidel Castro aired on ABC-TV in 1977. During their interview, she told him, "You allow no dissent. Your newspapers, radio, television, motion pictures are under state control." Castro replied that their idea of freedom of the press was different. He said a newspaper against socialism would not be allowed. Walters ended the broadcast by saying, "What we disagreed on most profoundly is the meaning of freedom—and that is what truly separates us."
On March 3, 1999, her interview with Monica Lewinsky was watched by a record 74 million viewers. This was the highest rating ever for a news program. Walters asked Lewinsky, "What will you tell your children when you have them?" Lewinsky answered, "Mommy made a big mistake." Walters then dramatically ended the program, telling viewers, "And that is the understatement of the year."
Creating The View
Walters was a co-host of the daytime talk show The View. She also created and co-executive produced it with her business partner, Bill Geddie. The show first aired on August 11, 1997.
In the show's first opening credits, Walters said The View was a place for women of "different generations, backgrounds, and views." On The View, she won Daytime Emmy Awards for Best Talk Show in 2003. She also won Best Talk Show Host in 2009 with Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd.
Walters retired from being a co-host on May 15, 2014. However, she returned as a guest co-host sometimes in 2014 and 2015.
Retirement and Later Work
After leaving her role as 20/20 co-host in 2004, Walters continued to contribute to ABC News until 2016. On March 7, 2010, Walters announced she would no longer do Oscar interviews. However, she would still work with ABC and on The View.
On March 28, 2013, news outlets reported that Walters would retire in May 2014. She confirmed this six weeks later. She made the official announcement on the May 13, 2013, episode of The View. She also said she would continue as the show's executive producer.
In 2014, she came out of retirement for a special 20/20 interview with Peter Rodger. In 2015, Walters hosted special 20/20 episodes. These featured interviews with Mary Kay Letourneau and Donald and Melania Trump. In 2015, Walters hosted the documentary series American Scandals.
Walters continued to host her 10 Most Fascinating People series on ABC in 2014 and 2015. Her last on-air interview was with Donald Trump for ABC News in December 2015. She made her final public appearance in 2016.
Personal Life
Walters was married four times to three different men. Her first husband was Robert Henry Katz, a business executive. They married on June 20, 1955, and the marriage was annulled in 1957. Her second husband was Lee Guber, a theatrical producer. They married on December 8, 1963, and divorced in 1976. After Walters had three miscarriages, they adopted a baby girl named Jacqueline Dena Guber in 1968. Her third husband was Merv Adelson, the CEO of Lorimar Television. They married in 1981 and divorced in 1984. They remarried in 1986 and divorced again in 1992.
Walters dated lawyer Roy Cohn in college. She said she was grateful to Cohn for his help with her daughter's adoption. She also felt grateful for his legal help for her father.
Walters dated future U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan in the 1970s. She was also linked to United States Senator John Warner in the 1990s. In 2007, she dated Pulitzer Prize–winning gerontologist Robert Neil Butler.
Walters was close friends with Tom Brokaw, Woody Allen, and Joan Rivers. She was also friends with former Fox News head Roger Ailes. In 2013, Walters said she wished she had more children.
Health and Passing
In May 2010, Walters announced she would have open heart surgery. This was to replace a faulty aortic valve. She knew she had aortic stenosis, even without symptoms. The surgery went well, and doctors were pleased. Walters returned to The View and her radio show in September 2010. She permanently retired from both shows four years later.
Barbara Walters passed away at her home in Manhattan on December 30, 2022. She was 93 years old.
Legacy and Awards
Walters was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989. On June 15, 2007, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She won Daytime and Prime Time Emmy Awards. She also received a Women in Film Lucy Award and a GLAAD Excellence in Media award.
In 2008, Walters received the Disney Legends award. This award honors those who have greatly contributed to The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC. That same year, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Women's Agenda. On September 21, 2009, Walters was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards.
Walters was a well-known figure in popular culture. Gilda Radner famously parodied her as "Baba Wawa" on Saturday Night Live in the late 1970s. This parody highlighted Walters' unique way of speaking. Her name even appeared in a New York Times Crossword Puzzle in 1995.
Awards and Nominations
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- 1985: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
- 1975 Award for Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host (Today)
- 2003 Award for Best Talk Show (The View)
- 2009 Award for Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host (The View) (with Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd)
- 2009 Award for Best Talk Series (The View) from NAACP Image Award
- 1998 Women in Film Lucy Award for her excellent work that improved how women are seen on television.
- 1991 Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement, presented by Beverly Sills.
See also
- New Yorkers in journalism
