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Barbara Ann Walters (born September 25, 1929)<ref>Barbara Walters has had her birth year recorded as both 1929 and 1931. She is listed in the 1930 US Census.[1]</ref>) is an American media personality who has been a regular fixture on morning television shows (Today and The View), evening news magazine (20/20), and on The ABC Evening News, as the first female evening news anchor. Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news anchor for over 10 years on NBC's Today, where she worked with Hugh Downs and later Frank McGee, and then Jim Hartz. Walters later became a veteran 20 year co-host of ABC newsmagazine 20/20, again paired with Downs. She was the first woman to co-anchor the evening network evening news (with Harry Reasoner), on "The ABC Evening News."

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Interviews 2.2 The View 2.3 Interview style 2.4 Impact 3 Personal life 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Early life

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Walters is one of two daughters. Her father, Louis Edward Walters, was a Jewish immigrant from London, England, who owned the chain of famous nightclubs known as the Latin Quarter. He also was a Broadway producer (he produced the Ziegfeld Follies of 1943). Walters' mother was Boston-born Dena Seletsky, the daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants.

Barbara had a sister, Jackie, who was developmentally disabled and who died of ovarian cancer. Barbara named her daughter, whom she adopted with her second husband, Lee Guber, after her late sister. On shows such as A&E Biography, Barbara has commented that being surrounded by celebrities when she was young kept her from being "in awe" of them, an important factor in being able to conduct high-profile interviews. She graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1949. Walters received a B.A. in English from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

[edit] Career

Walters began as a writer on NBC's The Today Show in 1961, and within a year had become a reporter-at-large – developing, writing and editing her own reports and interviews. In 1974, NBC officially designated her the program's first female co-host. She is also known for her years on the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 where she joined host Hugh Downs in 1979 and became the show's sole host from 1999 to 2002.

In 1999, she interviewed Monica Lewinsky in front of a record 74 million viewers, still the most-watched news-related program in TV history. She left 20/20 in 2004. Walters asked Lewinsky, "what will you tell your children about this matter?" and Lewinsky replied "I guess mommy made some mistakes," at which point Walters brought the program to a dramatic conclusion, turning to the viewers and saying, "and that is the understatement of the century."

Throughout her career at ABC, Walters has appeared on ABC news specials as a commentator, including presidential inaugurations and the coverage of 9/11. Many of her regular and special programs are syndicated around the world.

Despite having developed a distinctive broadcast voice,after overcoming a slight speech impediment, Walters will occasionally lisp. Her ability to overcome her original lisp makes her long career success as a broadcaster even more remarkable.

[edit] Interviews

She follows the line of "personality journalism" and is known for her "scoop" interviews, such as the Monica Lewinsky interview that won the highest ratings of any journalist interview. In November 1977 she achieved a joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Her interviews with world leaders from all walks of life are a chronicle of the latter part of the 20th century. They include Russia's Boris Yeltsin, China's Jiang Zemin, the UK's Margaret Thatcher, Cuba's Fidel Castro, as well as India's Indira Gandhi, Václav Havel, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, King Hussein of Jordan, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and pop icon Michael Jackson.

Walters was widely lampooned in 1981 and often since, when during an interview with actress Katharine Hepburn, Walters allegedly posed the infamous question: "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" As she has often pointed out, and the video clips confirm, Hepburn initiated the comment by saying she would like to be a tree, and Walters merely followed up with, "What kind of a tree?"

During a story on Cuban leader Fidel Castro, she claimed that "for Castro, freedom begins with education." She has been criticized for the statement and the story as a whole; critics point to her characterization of Castro as freedom-loving and argue that it painted an inaccurate picture of his government.

[edit] The View

More recently, Walters often co-hosts the daytime women's talk forum The View, of which she is also co-creator and co-executive producer. Recently, the show has come under a cloud of controversy over Star Jones Reynolds' sudden on-air announcement of her intent to leave the show, of which Walters knew since November 2005. In an interview with People on June 28, 2006, Reynolds said that she felt like "she was being fired" from the View when her contract was not renewed due to her declining popularity among viewers. This came weeks after Meredith Vieira, another View co-host, announced her departure from the show; it was stated earlier that Vieira was being replaced by Rosie O'Donnell, a move that has been called questionable by some television critics.<ref>http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=222073&GT1=7703'%20target=</ref> Reynolds and O'Donnell had been harsh critics of each other in the past, and there was speculation about whether they would be able to co-exist on the show, although Walters stated that the replacement had nothing to do with the decision to replace Reynolds.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060627/ap_en_tv/tv_the_view_reynolds</ref>

[edit] Interview style

Walters started to gain a reputation for her interview skills while at The Today Show, where it was her way to get on the air. Not all her interviewees remain dry-eyed, and critics accuse Walters of pumping for the ratings-generating public tears. Critics have also accused Walters of not posing enough tough questions to her subjects, relying mainly on so-called "softball" questions to elicit sometimes unexpected answers. Her Barbara Walters Specials are top-rated, and since 1993 her year-end Ten Most Fascinating People offers a review of the year's most prominent newsmakers. Prior to the move of the Academy Awards to an early Sunday evening time spot, a Walters interview show, usually featuring one or more of the top nominees, was a regular feature. Walters' celebrity interviews at ABC came as part of her $1 million contract to join ABC, with half of it coming from the news department and half from doing celebrity specials.

Her idiosyncratic speech with its rounded "R" inspired Gilda Radner's "Babwa Wawa" impersonation on Saturday Night Live, something by which the normally high-self-esteemed Walters has admitted she felt very hurt.^{[citation needed]}. She has been spoofed on the show by many comedians, including Cheri Oteri and Rachel Dratch.

[edit] Impact

Her career has opened doors for women in journalism. She was first hired as a staff writer for the Today Show, moving up to become that show's regular "Today Girl," handling lighter assignments. When Frank McGee was named host, he refused to do joint interviews with Walters unless he was given the first question. She was not named co-host of the show until McGee's death. She has seldom minced words when describing the visible, on-the-air disdain her co-anchor, Harry Reasoner, displayed for her when she was teamed up with him on the ABC Evening News (Reasoner had a difficult relationship with Walters because he disliked having a co-anchor, in addition to the fact that he felt uncomfortable with the idea of a Jewish newscaster). She had a better relationship with Hugh Downs, both at "Today" and "20/20," and the 20/20 team flourished for two decades.

[edit] Personal life

Walters has been married three times. Her first husband was Robert Henry Katz, a business executive. After the annulment of that marriage, she married theatrical producer Lee Guber on December 8 1963; they divorced in 1976. With Guber, Walters adopted daughter Jacqueline Walters Guber Danforth (named after Barbara's late sister). Walters' third husband was Merv Adelson, the CEO of Lorimar Television, whom she married in 1986 and divorced in 1992.

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

• Barbara Walters at NNDB
• Barbara Walters at the Internet Movie Database
• Barbara Walters at TV.com

Preceded by: John Chancellor	Today Show Host Hugh Downs and herself 1962 – 1971 Frank McGee and herself 1971 – 1974 Jim Hartz and herself 1974 – 1976 1962 – 1976	Succeeded by: Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley
Preceded by: Hugh Downs as sole host	20/20 Host Hugh Downs and herself 1979 – 1999 Solo 1999 – 2002 John Miller and herself 1/2002 – 1/2003 John Stossel and herself 2003 – 2004 1979 – 2004	Succeeded by: Elizabeth Vargas and John Stossel

Anchors of The Today Show
Garroway • Chancellor • Downs • McGee • Walters • Hartz • Brokaw • Pauley • Gumbel • Norville • Garagiola • Couric • Lauer • Vieira

Anchors of ABC Evening News/World News Tonight/World News
Daly • Young • Reynolds • Smith • Reasoner • Walters • Robinson • Jennings • Woodruff/Vargas • Gibson

Co-Anchors of 20/20
Hayes • Hughes • Downs • Walters • Miller • Stossel • Vargas

Co-Hosts of The View
Walters • Vieira • Jones Reynolds • Behar • Matenopoulos • Ling • Hasselbeck • O'Donnell

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