Barbara Walters

Template:Infobox actor television Barbara Jill Walters (born September 25, 1929) is an American journalist, writer and media personality who has been a regular fixture on morning television shows (Today and The View), an evening news magazine (20/20), and on The ABC Evening News as the first female evening news anchor. Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news anchor for over 10 years on NBC's Today, where she worked with Hugh Downs and later hosts Frank McGee and Jim Hartz. Walters later spent over 20 years as co-host of ABC's newsmagazine 20/20. She was the first woman to co-anchor the network evening news, working with Harry Reasoner on The ABC Evening News. In 2001, she was named the fourth most powerful woman in America by the Ladies Home Journal.

Early life

Walters was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of the former Dena Seletsky and Louis Edward Walters, an immigrant from London, England, who was a theatrical booking agent. In 1937, her father opened the first of a famous chain of nightclubs known as the Latin Quarter; he also was a Broadway producer (he produced the Ziegfeld Follies of 1943). Walters' elder sister, Jacqueline, was born developmentally disabled and died of ovarian cancer in 1988. Her brother, Burton, died in 1932 of pneumonia. Walters' parents were Jewish, although she did not have a religious upbringing, as her father had become an atheist.

Being surrounded by celebrities when she was young kept her from being "in awe" of them. When she was a young woman, Walters' father lost his nightclubs and the family's penthouse on Central Park West. As Walters recalled, "He had a breakdown. He went down to live in our house in Florida, and then the Government took the house, and they took the car, and they took the furniture". Of her mother, she said, "My mother should have married the way her friends did, a man who was a doctor or who was in the dress business."

After attending Fieldston and Birch Wathen private schools in New York City, Walters graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1949. In 1953, she received a B.A. in English from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

Career

After a brief period as a publicist with Tex McCrary Inc. and a job as a writer at CBS News, Walters joined NBC's The Today Show as a writer and researcher in 1961. Within a year, she had become a reporter-at-large developing, writing, and editing her own reports and interviews.

In 1974, NBC officially designated Walters the program's first female co-host. She is also known for her years on the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 where she joined host Hugh Downs in 1979.

On March 3, 1999, she interviewed Monica Lewinsky in front of a record 74 million viewers in what is still the most-watched news-related program in TV history. Walters asked Lewinsky, "What will you tell your children about this matter?" and Lewinsky replied, "'I guess Mommy made some mistakes,'" at which point Walters brought the program to a dramatic conclusion, turning to the viewers and saying, "And that is the understatement of the century."

Throughout her career at ABC, Walters has appeared on ABC news specials as a commentator, including presidential inaugurations and the coverage of 9/11. Many of her regular and special programs are syndicated around the world.

Interviews

Walters is known for "personality journalism" and her "scoop" interviews, such as the Monica Lewinsky interview that won the highest ratings of any journalist interview. In November 1977, she achieved a joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Her interviews with world leaders from all walks of life are a chronicle of the latter part of the 20th century. They include Russia's Boris Yeltsin, China's Jiang Zemin, the UK's Margaret Thatcher, Cuba's Fidel Castro, as well as India's Indira Gandhi, Václav Havel, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, King Hussein of Jordan, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Other interviews with influential people include pop icon Michael Jackson.

Walters was widely lampooned in 1981, and often since, when, during an interview with actress Katharine Hepburn, Walters is incorrectly identified as having posed the question: "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" As she has often pointed out, and the video clips confirm, Hepburn initiated the comment by saying she would like to be a tree, and Walters merely followed up with, "What kind of a tree?"

During a story on Cuban leader Fidel Castro, she claimed that "for Castro, freedom begins with education." She has been criticized for the statement and the story as a whole; critics point to her characterization of Castro as freedom-loving and argue that it painted an inaccurate picture of his government.

The View

Main article: The View

Walters co-hosts the sometimes controversialdaytime talk show The View, of which she is also co-creator and co-executive producer. Walters described the show in its original opening credits as a forum for women of "different generations, backgrounds, and views".

In 2006, the tenth year of the show, Walters selected Rosie O'Donnell as cohost, an appointment that was outshined only by the drama that came along with it. Heated debates and "hot topics" made headline news across the country on various occasions, especially involving Donald Trump, the war in Iraq, and an on-air shouting match between O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Although the show's ratings went way up during O'Donnell's tenure, so did the concomitant headaches for Walters. Walters, upon announcing O'Donnell's early departure, said she adored O'Donnell and welcomed her back anytime.

Interview style

Walters started to gain a reputation for her interview skills while at The Today Show. Not all of her interviewees remain dry-eyed, and critics accuse Walters of pumping for the ratings-generating public tears. Critics have also accused Walters of not posing enough tough questions to her subjects, relying mainly on so-called "softball" questions to elicit sometimes unexpected answers. Her Barbara Walters Specials are top-rated and, since 1993, her year-end Ten Most Fascinating People offers a review of the year's most prominent newsmakers. Prior to the move of the Academy Awards to an early Sunday evening time spot, a Walters interview show, usually featuring one or more of the top nominees, was a regular feature. Walters' celebrity interviews at ABC came as part of her $1 million contract to join ABC, with half of it coming from the news department and half from doing celebrity specials.

Her idiosyncratic speech with its rounded "R" inspired Gilda Radner's "Baba Wawa" impersonation on Saturday Night Live.

Impact

Her career has opened doors for women in journalism. She was first hired as a staff writer for the Today Show, moving up to become that show's regular "Today Girl," handling lighter assignments. When Frank McGee was named host, he refused to do joint interviews with Walters unless he was given the first question. She was not named co-host of the show until McGee's death. She has seldom minced words when describing the visible, on-the-air disdain her co-anchor, Harry Reasoner, displayed for her when she was teamed up with him on the ABC Evening News. Reasoner had a difficult relationship with Walters because he disliked having a co-anchor.

Walters had a great on camera chemistry with Hugh Downs. Off camera, she also is said to have a good professional relationship built on high standards and mutual respect with Downs, both at "Today" for 5 years and "20/20", where this same anchor team enjoyed two decades of excellent ratings.

On June 14, 2007, Walters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal life

Walters has been married three times. As she told The New York Times in 1996, "I'm convinced that you stay married when the days are bad only because you really want to be. But I always had an out. I had this job, and this life and enough money. I didn't have to fight the bad days."

Her husbands were:

• Robert Henry Katz, a business executive and former Navy lieutenant, married 20 June 1955 at the Plaza hotel in New York City; the marriage was reportedly annulled in 1958.
• Lee Guber, theatrical producer and theater owner, married on December 8 1963; divorced 1976. One daughter, Jacqueline Dena Guber (born 1968, adopted same year).
• Merv Adelson, the CEO of Lorimar Television; married 1986, divorced in 1992.

The lawyer Roy Cohn said that he proposed to Walters the night before her wedding to Lee Guber, which Walters has denied.

External links

• Barbara Walters at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome person