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Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue at the 1989 Emmy Awards
Born	December 21, 1935 (1935-12-21) (age 71) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American media personality and writer, best known as the creator and star of The Phil Donahue Show, also known as Donahue, the first tabloid talk show. The show had a 26-year run on national (U.S.) TV, preceded by three years of local broadcast in Dayton, Ohio, before ending in 1996.

His shows have generally focused on issues that often divide liberals and conservatives in the U.S., such as abortion, consumer protection (his most frequent guest was Ralph Nader, for whom he campaigned in 2000), civil rights and war protests. Donahue also hosted a talk show on MSNBC from 2002 - 2003.

Contents 1 Personal history 2 Early career 3 The Phil Donahue Show / Donahue 4 MSNBC program 5 Film producer 6 Interview with Bill O'Reilly (9/05) 7 References 8 External links

In 1953, 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, who divorced him in 1975. There were five children from that marriage. He married his second (and present) wife, actress Marlo Thomas, in 1980.

Donahue began his career in 1957 as a production assistant at KYW radio and television 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 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he became program director for WABJ radio in Adrian, Michigan, soon after graduating. He moved on to become a stringer for the CBS Evening News and later, an anchor of the morning newscast at WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio, where his interviews with Jimmy Hoffa and Billie Sol Estes were picked up nationally. While in Dayton, Donahue also hosted Conversation Piece, a phone-in talk show from 1963 to 1967 on WHIO radio. There, he interviewed civil rights activists (including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X) and war dissenters.

Main article: The Phil Donahue Show

In 1968, Donahue left the WHIO stations and moved his talk program to television with The Phil Donahue Show on WLWD (now WDTN), also in Dayton. Initially, the program was shown only on other stations owned by the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation (which would later take the name of its parent Avco Company), which also owned WLWD. But, in January 1970, The Phil Donahue Show entered nationwide syndication.

The final original episode of Donahue aired in May 1996, culminating what remains the longest continuous run of any syndicated talk show in U.S. television history.

In 2002, Phil Donahue returned to television to host a show called Donahue on MSNBC. On February 25, 2003 MSNBC cancelled the show, citing low viewership. While he didn't garner as many viewers as Bill O'Reilly, who shared the same time slot, Donahue was the highest rated show on MSNBC at the time it was cancelled, managing to beat out even Chris Matthews' "Hardball" in the ratings.[1] Soon after the show's cancellation AllYourTV.com reported it had received a copy of an internal NBC memo that stated Donahue should be fired because he would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war"[2][3].

In 2007, Donahue served as Executive Producer for the feature documentary film, Body of War, which he also co-directed with independent filmmaker Ellen Spiro. The film tells the story of Tomas Young, a severely disabled Iraq War veteran and his turbulent postwar adjustments. The film features two new songs, No More and Long Nights by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. In November 2007 the film was named as one of fifteen to be in consideration for an Oscar nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [1]

In September 2005 Donahue was briefly back in public attention after an appearance on The O'Reilly Factor in which he rebuked Bill O'Reilly for his criticism of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and his continued support for the Iraq War. During a heated exchange, Phil turned to Bill and said: "Don't wag that finger at me, Billy Boy!"

Donahue also said that O'Reilly based his show and his interviewing style on little more than loudness and talking points, and criticized his treatment of Jeremy Glick, the son of a September 11 terror attack victim (Barry Glick) who appeared on the show.

[1] Melidonian, Teni. 15 Docs Move Ahead in 2007 Oscar® Race Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences official website. 2007-11-19. Retrieved on 2007-12-3.

• Phil Donahue at the Internet Movie Database
• Body of War
• Donahue, Phil from Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Interview with Phil Donahue on the state of the media from Democracy Now!
• Video Interview from Archive of American Television
• Phil Donahue Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos