Phil Donahue is a famous American journalist. He is famous for the fact that during the Cold War, he held with Vladimir Pozner television bridges between the countries of the USA and the USSR. Also, his programs had a special influence on similar ones, which will be released later in Russia, because he is considered the founder of the talk show in the form in which we know him now.
Phil's personal life
The famous television journalist was born in the distant 1935 in the month of December. This happened in the United States in Ohio, in the city of Cleveland. His family was of Irish descent, they were believers who professed Catholicism. Also, Phil Donahue, whose biography is described in this article, is twice married. The journalist’s first marriage took place in 1958, a year after graduating from the university. His wife was Marge Cooney. She gave birth to five children by Donahue. Despite this, in 1975 the couple divorced. And in 1980, Phil married a second time. It turned out to be a famous American actress Marlo Thomas. The couple retains the marriage to this day.
Education Donahue
Phil Donahue graduated from St. Edward High School in 1953, and this was her first graduation. Then he entered the University of Notre Dame and studied there until 1957. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration.
Work on television
Phil Donahue began his work on television as an assistant director on a well-known radio station, as well as on Cleveland television. In addition, Donahue worked for some time on the CBS channel for an evening news release as a freelance correspondent.
In Ohio, Phil worked on WHIO-TV. There he led a program in the morning with the latest news. Donahue took numerous interviews with prominent political and secular people of that time, which allowed the journalist to raise his rating and increase professionalism.
1967 was a landmark year for Donahue. It was this year that his own program, The Phil Donahue Show, began appearing on the WLWD television station (now called WDTN) in Detroit. In just a few years, this program has become a nationwide project (by 1970). Then, from 1974 to 1985, Donahue worked on his show in Chicago, and then, until 1996, in New York.
As a television presenter, Phil interviewed many civil law 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, addressed such burning issues as abortion, anti-war protests, consumer protection and even lesbian marriages.
In January 1987, Phil visited the Soviet Union. Then he recorded a number of programs as part of his show, visiting cities such as Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. In the USSR, programs were published and were shown to the viewer in the same year. The following year (1986), the famous teleconference Leningrad-Boston took place. It was called "Women speak with women." Donahue and Posner were the hosts on this show. As noted in the book of Evgeny Dodolev about Vlad Listyev, the teleconference was approved by Gorbachev. Of course, this was not the only time that Donahue was the host of such shows.
Obviously, thanks to the fruitful cooperation in the Soviet era, from 1991 to 1994, round-table television meetings were held, which were called “Posner and Donahue”. These programs were released every week; various controversial issues of various topics were discussed at them.
Despite the success of the talk show Donahue hosted in his home country, in 1996, in the spring of his last release. In the history of American television, this program went on air for the longest time (unlike everyone else). Until 2002, Donahue did not work on television and did not conduct any programs.
In 2002, there was an attempt to resume the Donahue show, but it lasted only seven months. There were various rumors, one of them had real ground under it. Shortly before the start of hostilities by America in Iraq, Donahue criticized these actions of his country. It was rumored that it was precisely because of this that the dismissal had happened. Although management claimed that the program was closed due to a low rating (according to polls, talk shows ranked third, not a low rating at all, right?) Be that as it may, Donahue left.
In 2007, Donahue worked on the film “Body of War”, becoming the producer and co-director of this documentary. It tells of a 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 as talk shows. It first appeared in the sixties of the last century in the United States and literally in two decades has spread and became popular around the world. Also, Donahue repeatedly received an Emmy Award for his show (among television, it is tantamount to an Oscar).
In 1996, Phil took forty-second place on the TV Guide's list of “50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time”. And in 2002, his talk show in the list of “50 greatest television shows of all time according to TV Guide” took twenty-ninth place.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it should be said that Phil Donahue is a truly great journalist and TV presenter who has come a long way in the field of this profession. He deserved the received prizes and recognition for revealing and discussing the burning issues of society.