Pioneer. Trailblazer. Creator. These are words that come to mind when talking about legendary TV news journalist, Barbara Walters. The journalist, who became a household name, passed on December 30. Walters was 93.
“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists but for all women,” Walters’ spokesperson Cindi Berger told CNN in a statement.
While Millenials and Gen-Z may associate Walters with her groundbreaking morning talk show, The View, Boomers and Gen-Y knew of Walters going all the way back to her days as co-host for NBC’s Today show. In 1976, Walters joined ABC News as the first female co-anchor on an evening news program.
When Walters joined ABC, she began her trajectory upward as she launched The Barbara Walters Specials and 10 Most Fascinating People before becoming a co-host with Hugh Downs for ABC News’ 20/20.
A descendant of Russian Jewish emigrants, Walters was born in Boston on September 25, 1929. She was the daughter of Dena (née Seletsky) and Lou Walters (born Louis Abraham Warmwater).
During her childhood, Walters’ father managed the Latin Quarter nightclub in Boston. In 1942, her father opened the club’s now-famous New York location. He also worked as a Broadway producer and produced the Ziegfeld Follies of 1943.
Walters attended Lawrence School, a public school in Brookline, Massachusetts; she left halfway through fifth grade when her father moved the family to Miami Beach in 1939. She continued attending public school in Miami Beach. After her father moved the family to New York City, she spent eighth grade at Ethical Culture Fieldston School, after which the family moved back to Miami Beach.
She then went back to New York City, where she attended Birch Wathen School, graduating in 1947. In 1951, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Sarah Lawrence College.
After graduating, Walters took a job as a secretary at a small New York ad agency. She would soon leave there, taking a job at NBC network affiliate WNBT-TV (now WNBC), doing publicity and writing press releases.
In 1953 she produced a 15-minute children’s program, Ask the Camera, which was directed by Roone Arledge, who would become a legendary sports and news producer. She went to WPIX to produce the Eloise McElhone Show, which was canceled in 1954. She became a writer on The Morning Show at CBS in 1955.
In 1961, Walters took a job at The Today Show as a reporter. Dubbed, “The Today Girl,” Walters would handle lighter stories, following in the footsteps of her predecessors, Florence Henderson and Estelle Parsons and Lee Meriwether.
In 1974, Walters was named the first female co-host of a morning news show when she was promoted at Today. Two years later, she would leave her $1 million a year job in order to sign a 5-year, $5 million contract with ABC to become the first female nightly news co-anchor with Harry Reasoner, holding down the position from 1976 – 1978. She was also the highest-paid anchor at the time.
Walters was chosen to be the moderator for the third and final debate between candidates Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.
Reasoner had a toxic relationship with Walters because he disliked having a co-anchor. In 1979, Walters reunited with former The Today Show co-host Downs on the ABC newsmagazine 20/20. Throughout her career at ABC, Walters appeared on ABC news specials as a commentator, including presidential inaugurations and the coverage of 9/11.
Walters eventually pivoted into becoming an award-winning interviewer with her Barbara Walters Specials. Her first guests included a joint appearance by President-elect Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter, and a separate interview with singer-actress Barbra Streisand. In November 1977, she landed a joint interview with Egypt’s president, Anwar Al Sadat, and Israel’s Prime Minister, Menachem Begin.
She would reach a new level of notoriety as SNL would turn its attention to her. She would first be lampooned by the late Gilda Radnor, calling herself, “Babwa Wawa.” Here she is:
She would also be lampooned by SNL’s Cheri O’Teri, who eventually went toe-to-toe with Walter’s on her last day on The View:
During her career, Walters interviewed every sitting U.S. president and first lady from Richard and Pat Nixon to Barack and Michelle Obama. She also interviewed both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, though not when they were president.
REELated:
She also gained acclaim and notoriety for interviewing such subjects as Fidel Castro, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Katharine Hepburn, Sean Connery, Monica Lewinsky, Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Jiang Zemin, and Bashar al-Assad.
Walters created, produced, and co-hosted the ABC daytime talk show The View; she appeared on the program from 1997 until she retired in 2014. Her shows were the highest-rated of their type and paved the way for other imitators such as The Talk on CBS and The Real on The CW.
Walters was married four times, to business executive Robert Katz, producer Lee Guber and twice to entertainment mogul Merv Adelson. She is survived by her daughter, Jackie, whom she and Guber adopted in 1968.
She was a legend and her influence will be felt for decades to come.
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