Barbara Walters
Tuesday, April 26,
2005
The Jones Day Lecture
Barbara Walters has arguably interviewed more statesmen and stars
than any other journalist in history. She is so well known that her
name and a brief biography is listed in the American Heritage Dictionary.
Ms. Walters' numerous and timely interviews -- which appear regularly on the weekly newsmagazine 20/20 and on The Barbara Walters Specials -- read like a "Who's Who" of newsmakers. She did the first interview for American television with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the first interview with President and Mrs. Bush following September 11th. She also did a one-hour special on Saudi Arabia following her visit there.
Through the years she has interviewed such world figures as Russia's Boris Yeltsin, China's Premier Jiang Zemin, Great Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Libya's Moammar Quadaffi and Iraq's President Sadaam Hussein.
At the other extreme, in 1999 Ms. Walters conducted the first interview with Monica Lewinsky, which became the highest-rated news program ever broadcast by a single network.
She has interviewed every American President and First Lady since Richard Nixon. She made journalism history by arranging the first joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin in November, 1977. Another of her "firsts" was an hour-long primetime conversation with Cuban President Fidel Castro -- an interview which has been printed in half a dozen languages and shown all over the world.
The Barbara Walters Specials are continuously the top-rated specials of the year and have included such legends as Sir Laurence Olivier, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Bette Davis and Audrey Hepburn. More recent interviews of superstars have included Tom Cruise, Halle Berry, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, John Travolta, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Ms. Walters' is co-owner, co-executive producer and co-host of The View, the original forum where real women discuss relevant, everyday issues and share their daily, no-holds-barred opinions and lively, colorful conversations. It consists of hot topics in the news, the best experts in their field, celebrity interviews and general entertainment. The View premiered in August 1997 and is broadcast live from New York City.
Ms. Walters joined ABC News in 1976 as the first woman to co-host the network news. In 1984, she became co-host of the ABC newsmagazine 20/20, which is currently in its 24th season on the network.
Prior to joining ABC, she appeared on NBC's Today Show for 15 years. She began as a writer on the Today Show, and within a year became a reporter-at-large, developing, writing and editing her own reports and interviews. In 1963 she became a co-host of the program without the official title, but in 1974 NBC officially designated her as the program's first female co-host.
A native of Boston, Ms. Walters is the daughter of the famed entertainment impresario Lou Walters and has one daughter.