Geraldo Rivera - Biography

Last Editor: VlllEVO				Geraldo Rivera Biography -   Name : Geraldo Rivera Date of birth : 4 July 1943 Place of birth : Brooklyn, New York, USA Birth name : Gerald Michael Riviera

Geraldo Rivera Trivia -

Chosen by People magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" in the world. [1991] His wife, Edie, was Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s daughter. His autobiography, written in 1991 is "Exposing Myself." In his autobiography, he revealed his affairs with Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Judy Collins, Chris Evert, Margaret Trudeau, Marion Javits, and at least 1000 other women. He first made a name for himself as a lawyer defending Harlems's largely Hispanic Young Lords gang. His brother is newscaster Craig Rivera, who previously gained experience as Geraldo's producer at ABC News. Is engaged to Erica Levy, who will become the fifth Mrs. Geraldo Rivera sometime in 2003. [September 2002] He hosted the television segment that gave the American public the first chance of seeing the Zapruder film of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. His most famous program was The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults (1986) (TV) that aired in April 1986. When Chicago's Lexington Hotel was being demolished, a sealed vault was discovered. Rivera hosted the live program that was going to climax with the opening of the vault, supposedly revealing Al Capone's treasure or a more gruesome find. The biggest find was an empty whiskey bottle. The hype generated a record rating of 57 with an estimated audience of 30,000,000. The term "Al Capone's Vault" has come to mean any overhyped event that leads to nothing. Allegedly married first wife Linda Coblentz in part to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Children: Isabella Holmes (b. 7 November 1992) and Simone Cruickshank (b. September 1994) by C. C. Dyer; Gabriel Miguel (b. 2 July 1979) by Sherryl Raymond; Cruz (b. 1987) by a previous relationship; Solita Liliana (b. August 2005) by Erica Levy. Exposed deplorable conditions in "Willowbrook State School", an institution for people with developmental disabilities, in early 1972. Publicity from the class-action lawsuit against the state of New York that soon followed was a major contributing factor in the passing of a federal law called "Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980." His mother is of Russian Jewish ancestry and his late father was a Puerto Rican of Spanish ancestry. Listed on his birth certificate as Gerald Michael Riviera, born to Allen and Lillian (Friedman) Riviera. In his autobiography "Exposing Myself," Rivera said that he believed his mother was attempting to deflect future discrimination from her children by misspelling their surname on their birth certificates, as they were the products of a mixed marriage. NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff once said of him: "There are two words that serve as a signal that you're operating in an area of questionable taste. Those words are 'Geraldo Rivera.'" His fourth wife, C.C. Dyer, did not take his last name when they married. The 1980s GI Joe animated series created the news anchor man character Hector Ramirez as a parody of Rivera. Geraldo Rivera and Erica Levy welcomed daughter Solita Liliana August 2005.

Geraldo Rivera Detailed Biography -

Geraldo Rivera (born July 4, 1943) is a television journalist with an affinity for dramatic high-profile stories and a style that has often been accused of sensationalism. He was born Gerald Miguel Riviera in New York City. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1969, and was lawyer for the New York Puerto Rican group the Young Lords. He was interviewed when they occupied an East Harlem church in 1970, attracting the attention of a news producer. He was hired by New York City station WABC-TV for their local news program. In 1972 he garnered national attention with his story of the abuse of mentally retarded patients at Staten Island's Willowbrook State School, and began to appear on ABC national programs such as Good Morning America and 20/20. In 1985 ABC's Roone Arledge refused to air a report done by Rivera on the relationship between Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy: Rivera publicly criticized Arledge's journalistic integrity (claiming that his friendship with the Kennedy family had caused him to spike the story) and was fired. In 1986 he hosted an hour-long special on the opening of what he called "Al Capone's secret vault" which had the highest rating of any syndicated special in television history, but is more noted for its disappointing denouement: the "vault" turned out to be a cellar, containing little of interest. In 1987 he began hosting a talk show, Geraldo, which set the trends toward controversial guests and theatricality (one of the early shows was titled "Men in Lace Panties and the Women Who Love Them"). His nose was broken in a well-publicized brawl that occurred on his 1988 show featuring Nazi skinheads and black activists, which sparked Newsweek's characterization of his show as "Trash TV". Also in 1987, he hosted the first of a series of special reports in primetime dealing with an alleged epidemic of Satanic ritual abuse. He stated: "Estimates are that there are over 1 million Satanists in this country...The majority of them are linked in a highly organized, very secretive network. From small towns to large cities, they have attracted police and FBI attention to their Satanic ritual child abuse, child pornography and grisly Satanic murders. The odds are that this is happening in your town." Subsequent to the programs, there were outbreaks of Satanic hysteria in various American cities. The influence of his programs on general public belief in Satanic ritual abuse cannot be overestimated. He was noted for self-promotion and for inserting himself into stories: he had plastic surgery on his program (twice), and his autobiography Exposing Myself caused headlines in 1991 by discussing his sexual dalliances, which included encounters with Bette Midler and Margaret Trudeau. He was also temporarily the son-in-law of science fiction writer, Kurt Vonnegut. In 1993 he began hosting a more sedate nightly discussion of the news on cable station CNBC (called Rivera Live) while continuing to host Geraldo. In 1997 he contracted with NBC to work as a reporter for 6 years for a fee of 30 million U.S. dollars. Following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, he accepted a pay cut and went to work for the Fox News Channel as a war correspondent starting in November 2001. During the U.S./Afghanistan war in 2001, he was derided for falsely claiming to be reporting from the scene of a friendly fire incident which in actuality had occurred 50 miles away. He claims the discrepancy resulted from a misunderstanding. During the 2003 Iraq War, as an "embedded journalist" with U.S. forces in Iraq, he drew a map in the sand during a live broadcast on the Fox News Channel, which the Pentagon felt revealed potentially damaging strategic information. The Pentagon announced that they were forcing him out of Iraq; two days later Rivera announced that henceforth and voluntarily he would be reporting on the Iraq conflict from Kuwait. The Daily Show jested that he was only the fourth person that the US had said must leave Iraq, the other three being Saddam Hussein and his two sons.