Phil Donahue - Biography

Last Editor: lovely_eysarh				Phil Donahue Biography -   Name : Phil Donahue Profession : TV Anchor Birth Details : born December 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio

Phil Donahue Trivia -

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Phil Donahue Detailed Biography -

Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio) is the creator and star of The Phil Donahue Show (a k a Donahue) (1967—1996), the first of the syndicated talk shows where the host walks through the audience to let audience members make comments and ask questions. The show lasted for 29 years on TV, debuting as a Dayton, OH local program in 1967 and moving to national syndication two years later. It briefly emerged as an MSNBC offering in 2002-2003. His shows have generally focused on liberal issues, like women's reproductive rights, consumer protection (his most frequent guest was Ralph Nader, for whom he campaigned in 2000), civil rights, and war protests. In 1953 Phil Donahue was a member of the first graduating class of St. Edward High School, an all boys college prep Catholic high school run by the Brothers of Holy Cross in suburban Lakewood, Ohio. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.B.A. in 1957 A year later, he married his first wife, Marge Cooney. They had five children: Michael, Kevin, Daniel, Jim, Maryrose. He divorced Marge in 1975 and married actress Marlo Thomas in 1980. Donahue began his career in 1957 as a production assistant at TV and AM station KYW in Cleveland. He got a chance to become announcer one day when the regular announcer failed to show up. After a brief stint as a bank check sorter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he became program director for WABJ radio, Adrian, Michigan, soon after graduating. He moved on to become a stringer for the CBS Evening News and then anchor of the morning newscast at WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio, where his interviews with Jimmy Hoffa and Billy Sol Estes were picked up nationally. The Dayton-based Donahue hosted Conversation Piece, a phone-in talk show from 1963-67. There he interviewed civil rights activists (including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X) and war dissenters. He moved the format to television with The Phil Donahue Show on WLW-D (now WDTN) in Dayton, Ohio in 1967. The show was a success and was nationally syndicated two years later by Avco. Donahue relocated the show's home base to WGN-TV in Chicago in 1974, and the show eventually took off, becoming both a national phenomenon and a pioneer. Later, he moved the show to WBBM-TV for its final years based in the Midwest. In 1985, Donahue moved the program's operations to WNBC-TV, following a month-long buildup in which NBC late-night host David Letterman would use portions of his national program counting down the days to Donahue's move with a huge calendar in his studio. In 1992, Donahue celebrated the 25th anniversary of his local and national program with a special produced at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, in which he was lauded by his talk-show peers. Ironically, in many corners he was seen as having been bypassed both by Oprah Winfrey, whose own hugely successful national show was based in Donahue's former Chicago home base; and Sally Jessy Raphael, whose own talk show was distributed by Donahue's syndicator Multimedia. Donahue's show finally ended in 1996, culminating what remains the longest continuous run (27 years) of any midday national talk show in US history, not counting the weekday and Sunday breakfast programs and specialized shows such as the religious-oriented The 700 Club.