Barbara Walters Bio | Wiki
Barbara Walters (Full Name: Barbara Jill Walters) was a popular American retired broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She was known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers. Barbara appeared as the host of several television programs, such as Today, The View, 20/20, and ABC Evening News. Barbara was a working journalist from 1951 to 2015.
She started her career on The Today Show in the early 1960s working as a writer and segment producer of women’s interest stories. Barbara’s popularity with viewers resulted in Walters receiving more airtime, and in 1974, Barbara became co-host of the program, the first woman to hold such a title on an American news program.
Barbara continued in 1976 to be a pioneer for women in broadcasting by becoming the first female co-anchor of a network evening news program, along with Harry Reasoner on the ABC Evening News. She served as a producer and co-host on the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 from 1979 to 2004. Barbara also became known due to an annual special aired on ABC, Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People.
She created, produced, and co-hosted the ABC daytime talk show The View in 1997, on which she appeared until her retirement in 2014. Afterward, Barbara continued to host a number of special reports for 20/20 and a documentary series for Investigation Discovery. Barbara’s final on-air appearance for ABC News was in 2015.
Barbara Walters Age | Birthday
She was born on September 25, 1929, in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Barbara died on December 30, 2022, in New York City at the age of 93.
Barbara Walters Height
She was a woman of average stature. Barbara stood at a height of 5 ft 5 in ( Approx 1.65m ).
Barbara Walters Family
She was born and raised in Boston by her caring and loving parents. Barbara is the proud daughter of Dena (née Seletsky) and Louis “Lou” Walters (born Louis Abraham Warmwater). Her parents were all Jewish, and descendants of refugees from the former Russian Empire. Her paternal grandfather Abraham Isaac Warmwater, was born in Łódź, Poland, and emigrated to the U.K, changing his name to Abraham Walters (the original family surname was Waremwasser).
Barbara’s dad, Lou, was born in London in 1898 and moved to New York with his father and her two brothers, coming on August 28, 1909. Her mother and four sisters arrived in 1910. Barbara had a brother named, Burton Walters, who died in 1944 of pneumonia. Her elder sister, Jacqueline Walters, born mentally disabled also died in 1985 of ovarian cancer.
Barbara Walters Spouse
Barbara was married four times to three different men. She first married her spouse Robert Henry Katz, who is a business executive and former Navy lieutenant. The two married on June 20, 1955, at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. Their marriage reportedly annulled after 11 months or in 1957.
Barbara’s second husband was Lee Guber, a theatrical producer and theater owner. The pair married on December 8, 1963, and divorced in 1976. She and Lee have one daughter named Jacqueline Dena Guber who was born in 1968 and adopted the same year.
Barbara’s third spouse was Merv Adelson, the CEO of Lorimar Television. The two married in 1981 and divorced in 1984. The couple remarried in 1986 and also divorced for the second time in 1992.
Barbara also dated lawyer Roy Cohn in college; she said that Roy proposed marriage to Barbara the night before her wedding to Lee Guber, but Barbara denied this. She explained her lifelong devotion to Cohn as gratitude for his help in the adoption of her daughter, Jacqueline.
Barbara Walters Daughter
She had only one daughter named Jacqueline Dena Guber, adopted in 1968 during Barbara’s second marriage with Lee Guber, a theatrical producer and theater owner.
Barbara Walters Education
She studied at Lawrence School, which is a public school in Brookline, Massachusetts, to the middle of fifth grade, when her dad moved the family to Miami Beach in 1939, where Barbara also attended public school. Following her dad moved the family to New York City, Barbara went to eighth grade at Ethical Culture Fieldston School, after which the family moved back to Miami Beach. Later on, Barbara went back to New York City, where she attended Birch Wathen School from which Barbara graduated in 1947. She earned a B.A. in English in 1951 from Sarah Lawrence College.
2020 With Barbara Walters
She is also known for her years on the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 where Barbara reunited with former Today Show host Hugh Downs in 1979. Over her career at ABC, Barbara has appeared on ABC news specials as a commentator, including presidential inaugurations and the coverage of 9/11.
Barbara was also chosen to be the moderator for the third and final debate between candidates Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, held on the campus of the College of William and Mary at Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall in Williamsburg, Virginia, in the 1976 presidential election. In addition, Barbara moderated a Presidential debate held in 1984 at the Dana Center for the Humanities at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
Barbara Walters Health
Barbara said in May 2010 she would be having open-heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve. Besides, Barbara had known for quite a while that she was suffering from aortic valve stenosis, even though she was symptom-free. Her procedure to fix the faulty heart valve “went well, and the doctors are very excited with the outcome,” Barbara’s spokeswoman, Cindi Berger, said four days later.
It was announced on July 9, 2010, that Barbara would return to The View and her Sirius XM satellite show, thus she came back in September 2010.
Barbara Walters Today | Today Show
Following a few years as a publicist with Tex McCrary Inc. and a job as a writer at Redbook magazine, Barbara joined NBC’s The Today Show as a writer and researcher in 1961. Barbara moved up to become that show’s regular “Today Girl,” handling lighter assignments as well as the weather.
In her autobiography, Barbara described this era before the Women’s Movement as a time when it was believed that nobody would take a woman seriously reporting “hard news.” Before”Today Girls” (whom Walters called “tea pourers”) included Florence Henderson, Helen O’Connell, Estelle Parsons, and Lee Meriwether. Over the year, Barbara had become a reporter-at-large developing, writing, and editing her own reports and interviews. Early in 1971, Barbara also hosted her own local NBC affiliate show, Not for Women Only, which ran in the mornings after The Today Show.
Barbara Walters On The View | View
She served as a co-host of the daytime talk show The View, of which Barbara also was co-creator and co-executive producer with her business partner, Bill Geddie which premiered on August 11, 1997.
Barbara described the show in its previous opening credits as a forum for women of “different generations, backgrounds, and views.” Barbara added, “Be careful what you wish for…” on the opening credits of its second season. Via The View, Barbara was able to clinch two Daytime Emmy Awards due to her Best Talk Show in 2003 as well as Best Talk Show Host (with longtime host Joy Behar, moderator Whoopi Goldberg, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Sherri Shepherd) in 2009.
She retired from being a co-host on May 15, 2014. Besides getting retired, Barbara returned as a guest co-host on an intermittent basis throughout 2014 and 2015.
Barbara Walters Last Public Appearance
She proceeded to host her 10 Most Fascinating People series in 2014 and 2015. Barbara’s final on-air interview was with presidential candidate Donald Trump for ABC News in December 2015. Her last appeared publicly in 2016.
Interview With Barbara Walters
She has interviewed every sitting U.S. president and first lady since Richard Nixon. Barbara’s final interview with a president was Barack Obama in 2013. In addition, Barbara has interviewed both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, though not as Presidents.
She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989, and in 2007 earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Barbara earned a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Barbara Walters Interviews
She achieved a joint interview in November 1977, with Egypt’s president, Anwar Al Sadat, and Israel’s Prime Minister, Menachem Begin. As for The New York Times, when Barbara went mano a mano with Walter Cronkite to interview both world leaders, at the end of Cronkite’s interview, he clearly heard saying: “Did Barbara get anything I didn’t get?”
Barbara’s interviews with world leaders from all walks of life are a chronicle of the latter part of the 20th century. Such as the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his wife, Empress Farah Pahlavi; Russia’s Boris Yeltsin as well as Vladimir Putin; China’s Jiang Zemin; the UK’s Margaret Thatcher; Cuba’s Fidel Castro, and 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, among several others.
Examples of other interviews with influential people include pop icon Michael Jackson, actress Katharine Hepburn, Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and in 1980 Sir Laurence Olivier. Barbara considered Robert Smithdas, a deaf-blind man who spent his life improving the lives of other deaf-blind, individuals as her most inspirational interview.
Barbara Walters Cause of Death | Death
She died at her home in Manhattan, on December 30, 2022, at age 93. Barbara had been suffering from dementia in her later years. Barbara’s last words were, “No regrets – I had a great life.” These words were etched into her gravestone at Lakeside Memorial Park in Doral, Florida.
Barbara Walters Net Worth
She is a retired broadcast journalist, author, and television personality known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers. Therefore, Barbara has accumulated a decent fortune over the years. Barbara’s net worth was $170 million.
Is Barbara Walters Sick
Yes. Barbara said in May 2010 she would be having open-heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve. Besides, Barbara had known for quite a while that she was suffering from aortic valve stenosis, even though she was symptom-free.
How Old Was Barbara Walters When She Died
At the age of 93, Barbara died on December 30, 2022, in New York City.
Is Barbara Walters Still Alive
No, she died on December 30, 2022, in New York City at the age of 93.
Why Is Barbara Walters Important
Because she was a journalist known particularly for her highly effective technique in television interviews of world-renowned figures.
Barbara Walters Social Media Account
Twitter – @BarbaraJWalters