Phil Donahue | |
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 Donahue in 2007 | |
| Born | Phillip John Donahue (1935-12-21)December 21, 1935 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | August 18, 2024(2024-08-18) (aged 88) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | University of Notre Dame (BBA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1957–2024 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5 |
Phillip John Donahue (December 21, 1935 – August 18, 2024) was an American media personality, writer, film producer, and the creator and host ofThe Phil Donahue Show. The television program, later known simply asDonahue, was the first popular talk show to feature a format that included audience participation.[1] The show had a 29-year run on national television that began inDayton, Ohio, in 1967 and ended in New York City in 1996.
Donahue's shows often focused on issues that divideliberals andconservatives in the United States, such asabortion,consumer protection,civil rights, and war issues. His most frequent guest wasRalph Nader, for whom Donahue campaigned in2000.[2] Donahue also briefly hosted a talk show onMSNBC from July 2002 to February 2003.Donahue was one of the most influential talk show hosts and was often referred to as the "king of daytime talk".[3]Oprah Winfrey has said, "If it weren't for Phil Donahue, there would never have been anOprah Show."[3] In 1996, Donahue was rankedNo. 42 onTV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.[4]
Donahue was born on December 21, 1935,[5] into a middle-class,Irish Catholic family inCleveland, Ohio; his father, Phillip Donahue, was a furniture sales clerk, while his mother, Catherine (née McClory), was a department store shoe clerk.[6][7][5] In 1949, he graduated from Our Lady of Angels Elementary School in theWest Park neighborhood. In 1953, Donahue was a member of the first graduating class ofSt. Edward High School, an all-boys college preparatory Catholic private high school inLakewood, Ohio. He graduated from theUniversity of Notre Dame, with aBachelor of Business Administration degree, in 1957.[8]
Donahue began his career in 1957 as a production assistant atKYW radio andtelevision when that station was in Cleveland. He got a chance to become an announcer one day when the regular announcer failed to show up. After a brief stint as a bank check sorter inAlbuquerque, New Mexico, he became program director forWABJ radio inAdrian, Michigan, soon after graduating.[9] He moved on to become astringer for theCBS Evening News and later, an anchor of the morning newscast atWHIO-TV inDayton, Ohio, where his interviews withJimmy Hoffa andBillie Sol Estes were picked up nationally. While in Dayton, Donahue also hostedConversation Piece, an afternoon phone-in talk show from 1963 to 1967 onWHIO radio. In Dayton, Donahue interviewed presidential candidateJohn F. Kennedy, late-night talk show hostJohnny Carson,[10] human rights activistMalcolm X, and Vietnam war opponents includingJerry Rubin.[11] In Chicago and New York City, Donahue interviewedElton John,[12] heavyweight boxing championsMuhammad Ali andJoe Frazier,[13] and author and political activistNoam Chomsky.[14]
On November 6, 1967, Donahue left WHIO, moving his talk program withThe Phil Donahue Show on WLWD (nowWDTN), also in Dayton. Initially, the program was shown only on other stations owned by theCrosley Broadcasting Corporation (which would later take the name of its parentAvco Company), which also owned WLWD. But, in January 1970,The Phil Donahue Show entered nationwidesyndication. Donahue's syndicated show moved from Dayton, Ohio, to Chicago in 1974; then in 1985, he moved the show to New York City.[15] Ιn 1975, Donahue interviewed theNazi regime'sminister of armamentsAlbert Speer, some nine years after October 1966, when the convictedwar criminal was released from prison.[16] The almost one-hour-and-a-half interview was filmed in Speer's home, inHeidelberg, and broadcast in two parts, on November 20 and 21, 1975.[17]
While hosting his own program, Donahue also appeared onNBC'sThe Today Show as a contributor, from 1979 until 1988.[18]
After a 29-year run—26 years in syndication and nearly 7,000 one-hour daily shows—the final original episode ofDonahue aired on September 13, 1996.[19]
In the 1980s, during theCold War period ofopenness by the USSR, Donahue and Soviet journalistVladimir Pozner co-hosted a series of televised discussions, known as theU.S.–Soviet Space Bridge, among everyday citizens of theSoviet Union and the United States.[20] It was the first event of its kind in broadcasting history: Donahue hosted an audience in a U.S. city while Posner hosted an audience in a Soviet city, all on one television program. Members of both audiences asked each other questions about both nations. While the governments of both nations were preparing for the possibility ofnuclear war, Donahue said: "We reached out instead of lashed out." From 1991 to 1994 Donahue and Posner co-hostedPosner/Donahue, a weekly, issues-oriented roundtable program, which aired both onCNBC and in syndication.[21]His wife Marlo Thomas created a children's version in 1988 entitledFree to Be... A Family. Donahue and Posner became long-time friends after the experience.[22]
In July 2002, Donahue returned to television after seven years of retirement to host a show calledDonahue onMSNBC.[23] On February 25, 2003, MSNBC canceled the show.[24][25]Soon after the show's cancellation, an internal MSNBC memo was leaked to the press stating that Donahue should be fired because he opposed the imminentU.S. invasion of Iraq and that he would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war"[26] and that his program could be "a home for the liberal anti-war agenda".[27] Donahue commented in 2007 that the management of MSNBC, owned at the time byGeneral Electric, a major defense contractor, required that "we have two conservative (guests) for every liberal. I was counted as two liberals."[28]
| External videos | |
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 Q&A interview with Donahue onBody of War, March 23, 2008,C-SPAN |
In 2006, Donahue served as co-director with independent filmmakerEllen Spiro for the feature documentary filmBody of War. The film tells the story ofTomas Young, a severely disabled Iraq War veteran and his turbulent postwar adjustments. In November 2007, the film was named as one of fifteen documentaries to be in consideration for anOscar nomination from theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[29]
In June 2013, Donahue and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support forChelsea Manning.[30][31]
Donahue was interviewed for the documentary filmFinding Vivian Maier (2013), about the posthumously recognized Americanstreet photographer and an acquaintance of his from the 1970s.[32]
On May 24 and 25, 2016, Donahue spoke atRalph Nader's "Breaking Through Power" conference atDAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.[33][34][35]
Donahue was nominated for 20Daytime Emmy Awards during his broadcasting career, winning eight for Outstanding Talk Show HostThe Phil Donahue Show, as well as receiving both a Special Recognition Award in 1993, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He received thePeabody Award in 1980, and was inducted into theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame on November 20, 1993.[36]In 1987, he received the"Maggie" Award, highest honor of thePlanned Parenthood Federation, in tribute to their founder,Margaret Sanger. In 2024, Donahue was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom by PresidentJoe Biden.[37]
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Donahue's 1958 marriage to Margaret Cooney produced five children – Michael, Kevin, Daniel, Mary Rose, and James – but ended in divorce in 1975. She returned to her native New Mexico, remarried, and retired from public view.[38] The family had lived inCenterville, Ohio, across the street fromErma Bombeck, a humorist who would become one of his contemporaries as a national voice in the 1970s and 1980s.[39] For a brief period in the 1970s, Donahue employedVivian Maier, an Americanstreet photographer, as a nanny for his children.[32]
Donahue married actressMarlo Thomas on May 21, 1980.[40] He and Thomas had no children together.
In 1999, Donahue was one of the lead candidates to host the game showGreed along withKeith Olbermann, butChuck Woolery was hired instead.[41]
Regarding his religion, Donahue had stated: "I will always be aCatholic. But I want my church to join the human race and finally walk away from this anti-sexual theology."[2] He also said that he is not "a very good Catholic", and that he did not think it was necessary to have his first marriageannulled.[2] He had expressed admiration ofPope Francis.[42]
In early August 2014, Donahue's youngest son, James Donahue, died suddenly at the age of 51 due to aruptured aortic aneurysm.[43]
Donahue died following a long illness at his home on theUpper East Side ofManhattan in New York City, on August 18, 2024, at the age of 88. Donahue's death was confirmed by a family spokesperson, Susie Arons, who said Donahue died "peacefully following a long illness," surrounded by family members and "his beloved Golden retriever, Charlie."[44][45][15]
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