 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Lee Leonard" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Lee Leonard | |
|---|---|
| Born | Maxwell Lefkowitz (1929-04-03)April 3, 1929 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 16, 2018(2018-12-16) (aged 89) South Orange, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupations | Radio and TV personality |
| Spouse(s) | Rona Rosenberg (m. 1954;div. 1963) Salome Jens (m. 1966;div. 1973) |
| Children | 1 |
Lee Leonard (April 3, 1929 – December 16, 2018) was anAmerican televisionpersonality who was involved in the launch of cable television networksESPN andCNN.
Leonard was born Maxwell Lefkowitz on April 3, 1929, in New York City, the son of Estelle (Cohn), a beautician, and Daniel Lefkowitz.[1]
After graduating fromDeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he attended Columbia University in New York City but did not graduate.[1]
Leonard then served in the United States Army in Germany during the Korean War and developed an interest in broadcasting.[1]
He was a midday radio personality on New York'sWNBC-AM (660), shortly after it launched its "Conversation Station," a talk format, in 1964. He was part of a weekday talk-variety lineup that included "Big" Wilson,Robert Alda,Mimi Benzell,Sterling Yates,Bill Mazer,Brad Crandall andLong John Nebel and hosted a competition/quiz show for listeners calledFortune Phone.
In the early 1970s, Leonard was part of an even earlier network TV innovation, partnering onCBS-TV withJack Whitaker onThe NFL on CBS, a studio-based show wrapping around the network's coverage of theNational Football League with pregame features and halftime and postgame highlights from around the league. As producers changed, Leonard and Whitaker were eventually succeeded byThe NFL Today withBrent Musburger,Phyllis George,Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder andIrv Cross on one of network TV sports' longest-running studio-based programs. The core of the team would stay until the mid-1980s, while the show itself has aired continuously ever since, except for several years in the 1990s when CBS did not have NFL television rights.
As for Leonard, he would move to NBC and be teamed withBryant Gumbel on itsGrandStand show,[2] where he would stay until just before ESPN was launched. Also during the mid-1970s, Leonard hostedMidday Live, the daily talk show on WNEW-TV (nowWNYW) in New York City (he was replaced byBill Boggs). While at WNEW, Leonard was one of the original co-hosts with Bill Mazer ofSports Extra – considered a pioneering show for the Sunday Evening Sports Wrap-Up show format.
On September 7, 1979, Leonard was the first person to ever speak onESPN.[3] He gave a brief introduction before the network aired its first program, which was the first edition of SportsCenter. Afterwards, he made occasional appearances on the show.[4]
A year later (1980), Leonard moved toCNN, where he hostedPeople Tonight, the network's first Los Angeles–based liveentertainment news talk show. Many of today's major name celebrities made their first national talk show appearances onPeople Tonight, includingTom Cruise,Tom Hanks andPee-wee Herman. The show was groundbreaking in its coverage of Hollywoodred carpet premieres and many important breaking stories including the deaths ofJohn Lennon andNatalie Wood.Robin Leach cut his teeth as a New York–based correspondent before signing on to doEntertainment Tonight and later launching the pop culture hit series,Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Leonard co-hosted CNN's weekday entertainment-news program "Showbiz Today" withLiz Wickersham.
From 1996 to approximately 2002, Lee Leonard hostedJersey's Talking on News 12 New Jersey.[5] Leonard also hosted apublic affairs program on the New Jersey–based cable networkCN8.
Leonard was married to actressKelly Bishop, who playedEmily Gilmore on theCW showGilmore Girls as well as Marjorie Houseman inDirty Dancing. He was married twice previously, including once to actressSalome Jens. He had one daughter. He died in South Orange, New Jersey, on December 16, 2018 after a long fight with cancer.[1]