Her ABC co-anchor, Harry Reasoner, could not have been less gracious. She was the first million dollars a year network anchor. That impression was the price of success. In 1976, Walters left for ABC to become the first female evening news anchor and was spoofed by the late Gilda Radner on "Saturday Night Live." "She always had to wait to ask the fourth question, because the men in charge wouldn't let her ask first but she just pushed ahead and she always asked the smartest questions," Mitchell said.
Her friend Andrea Mitchell of NBC News says she was inspired as a teen by seeing a woman alongside the men of the "Today" show. In 1974, she became the show's first female co-host.
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Her father's livelihood eroded as television ascended, but after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, Walters joined TV as a writer and producer.Īt NBC's "Today" Show, she contributed occasional on-air features as well, then developed into a hit as she expanded her role there. And I'm sure it's a life that people would look at and envy and think, 'Oh, isn't that terrific?' I didn't want that," Walters said. "You know, there was such a dichotomy because on the one hand here was this glamorous life of nightclubs and gorgeous showgirls and big stars - Frank Sinatra and Milton Berle. Walters' father ran nightclubs and was often absent, as she told NPR's Steve Inskeep in 2008. Walters said she learned patience and empathy from Jackie, traits that proved handy.
Walters' parents held her out of many social settings to stay with her older sister Jackie, who had a mental disability. She later said that throughout her life she was driven by fear of financial collapse. She also spoke with Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gaddafi.īarbara Walters was born on September 25, 1929, just a month before the Wall Street crash that kicked off the Great Depression. It was not the first time Walters had interviewed a leader like Assad. The interview was the first Assad gave to an American journalist since the uprising began in his country. "No, I'm afraid that the people won't support me, Syrian people," Assad responded. in Libya of Moammar Gadhafi killed," Walters said during the interview. "You have seen, I am certain, the pictures of Egypt from the President Mubarak in jail, pictures. In December 2011, she asked Syria's President Bashar al Assad about brutal reprisals against protesters. In 1999, she scored the first big interview with Monica Lewinsky. She had the only joint interview of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin amid their peace talks in 1977. Yet over the decades, Walters posed plenty of tougher questions. In a Thanksgiving special with President Barack Obama and the first lady Michelle Obama, Walters asked the first lady, "You love him very much, don't you?" Whether she was interviewing celebrities or the first couple, her questions were often direct. Smith,' it set off Hollywood's hottest romance." When Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met on the set of 'Mr. She easily delivered lines like these to introduce Hollywood's "it" couple for her special, " The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006" saying, "Those lips, those eyes, that body. And if you remember Walters as a journalist who blurred the lines between news and entertainment, there is some truth to that. Though a celebrity as much as anyone she covered, Walters pursued serious subjects as well. A cause of death was not provided immediately. Barbara Walters, one of the most famous American broadcast journalists, has died at the age of 93 on Friday evening, according to ABC News, her former employer.
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