Phil Donahue: biography, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Phil Donahue is a famous American journalist. He is famous for the fact that during the Cold War he conducted teleconferences between the countries of the USA and the USSR together with Vladimir Pozner. Also, his programs had a special influence on similar programs later released in Russia, because he is considered the founder of the talk show in the form in which we know it now.

Phil's personal life

The famous TV journalist was born back in 1935 in the month of December. It happened in the USA in the state of Ohio, in the city of Cleveland. His family was of Irish origin, they were believers who professed Catholicism. Also Phil Donahue, whose biography is described in this article, is married twice. The journalist's first marriage took place in 1958, a year after graduation. His wife was Marge Cooney. She bore Donahue five children. Despite this, in 1975 the couple divorced. And in 1980, Phil married a second time. It turned out to be the famous American actress Marlo Thomas. The couple is still married to this day.

Donahue Education

Phil Donahue graduated from St. Edward's High School in 1953, his first graduation. He then entered the University of Notre Dame and studied there until 1957. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

Television work

Phil Donahue began his work in television as an assistant director at a well-known radio station, as well as on Cleveland television. In addition, Donahue briefly worked for CBS as a freelance writer for the evening newscast.

In Ohio, Phil worked for WHIO-TV. There he led a program with the latest news in the morning. Donahue took numerous interviews with prominent political and secular people of that time, which allowed the journalist to raise his rating and increase his professionalism.

1967 was a landmark year for Donahue. It was in this year that his own program “The Phil Donahue Show” began its work, which aired on the television station WLWD (now called WDTN), located in Detroit. In just a few years, this program became a nationwide project (by 1970). Then, from 1974 to 1985, Donahue worked on his show in Chicago and then New York until 1996.

As a TV presenter, Phil interviewed many civil rights activists. The most famous are Martin Luther King, Ralph Nader, Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Nelson Mandela and many others. Donahue, on the air of his program, touched upon such burning issues asabortions, anti-war protests, consumerism and even lesbian marriages.

In January 1987, Phil visited the Soviet Union. Here he recorded a number of programs as part of his show, visiting cities such as Moscow, Leningrad and Kyiv. In the USSR, the programs were published and were shown to the viewer in the same year. The following year (1986) the famous Leningrad-Boston teleconference took place. It was called "Women Talk to Women". Donahue and Posner were the hosts on this show. As noted in Yevgeny Dodolev's book about Vlad Listyev, the teleconferences were approved by Gorbachev. Of course, this wasn't the only time Donahue hosted a show like this.

Obviously due to fruitful cooperation during the Soviet era, during the period from 1991 to 1994 there were round-table televised meetings called “Pozner and Donahue”. These programs were released every week, they discussed various controversial issues that had different topics.

Despite the success of the talk show hosted by Donahue in his home country, in 1996 its last episode aired in the spring. In the history of American television, this program has been on the air for the longest time (unlike any other). Until 2002, Donahue did not work on television and did not host any programs.

In 2002, there was an attempt to revive the Donahue show, but it only lasted seven months. There were various rumors, one of them had a real basis. Shortly before the start of hostilities by America in Iraq, Donahue criticized these actions of his country. They talked about whatbecause of this, the dismissal happened. Although the management claimed that the program was canceled due to low ratings (according to the polls, the talk show ranked third, not a low rating at all, right?). Whatever the case, Donahue left.

In 2007, Donahue worked on the film "Body of War", becoming the producer and co-director of this documentary. It tells about the soldier Thomas Young, who became disabled after the war in Iraq.

Achievements in the profession

Donahue is considered the founder of such a well-known type of program today as a talk show. It first appeared in the 1960s in the United States and in just two decades has spread and become popular around the world. Also for his show, Donahue has repeatedly received an Emmy award (among television, it is equivalent to an Oscar award).

In 1996, Phil was ranked forty-second on TV Guide's list of "The 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time" due to his performance. And in 2002, his talk show was ranked twenty-ninth on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Phil Donahue is a truly great journalist and TV presenter who has come a long way in this profession. He deserved to receive awards and recognition for uncovering and discussing the burning issues of society.