Phil Donahue

Donahue was born on December 21, 1935,^[5] into a middle-class, Irish Catholic family in Cleveland, 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 the West Park neighborhood. In 1953, Donahue was a member of the first graduating class of St. Edward High School, an all-boys college preparatory Catholic private high school in Lakewood, Ohio. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame, with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, in 1957.^[8]

Donahue began his career in 1957 as a production assistant at KYW radio and television 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 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he became program director for WABJ radio in Adrian, Michigan, soon after graduating.^[9] 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, an afternoon phone-in talk show from 1963 to 1967 on WHIO radio. In Dayton, Donahue interviewed presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, late-night talk show host Johnny Carson,^[10] human rights activist Malcolm X, and Vietnam war opponents including Jerry Rubin.^[11] In Chicago and New York City, Donahue interviewed Elton John,^[12] heavyweight boxing champions Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier,^[13] and author and political activist Noam Chomsky.^[14]

 

On November 6, 1967, Donahue left WHIO, moving his talk program 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. Donahue's syndicated show moved from Dayton, Ohio, to Chicago in 1974; then in 1985, he moved the show to New York City.^[15]

After a 29-year run—26 years in syndication and nearly 7,000 one-hour daily shows—the final original episode of Donahue aired on September 13, 1996.^[16]

While hosting his own program, Donahue also appeared on NBC's The Today Show as a contributor, from 1979 until 1988.^[17]

 

In the 1980s, during the Cold War period of openness by the USSR, Donahue and Soviet journalist Vladimir Pozner co-hosted a series of televised discussions, known as the U.S.–Soviet Space Bridge, among everyday citizens of the Soviet Union and the United States.^[18] 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 of nuclear war, Donahue said: "We reached out instead of lashed out." From 1991 to 1994 Donahue and Posner co-hosted Posner/Donahue, a weekly, issues-oriented roundtable program, which aired both on CNBC and in syndication.^[19] His wife Marlo Thomas created a children's version in 1988 entitled Free to Be... A Family. Donahue and Posner became long-time friends after the experience.^[20]

In July 2002, Donahue returned to television after seven years of retirement to host a show called Donahue on MSNBC.^[21] On February 25, 2003, MSNBC canceled the show.^[22][23] 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 imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq and that he would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war"^[24] and that his program could be "a home for the liberal anti-war agenda".^[25] Donahue commented in 2007 that the management of MSNBC, owned at the time by General Electric, a major defense contractor, required that "we have two conservative (guests) for every liberal. I was counted as two liberals."^[26]

External videos
Q&A interview with Donahue on Body of War, March 23, 2008, C-SPAN

In 2006, Donahue served as co-director with independent filmmaker Ellen Spiro for the feature documentary film Body of War. The film tells the story of Tomas 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 an Oscar nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[27]

In June 2013, Donahue and numerous other celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning.^[28][29]

Donahue was interviewed for the documentary film Finding Vivian Maier (2013), about the posthumously recognized American street photographer and an acquaintance of his from the 1970s.^[30]

On May 24 and May 25, 2016, Donahue spoke at Ralph Nader's "Breaking Through Power" conference at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.^[31][32][33]

 

Donahue was nominated for 20 Daytime Emmy Awards during his broadcasting career, winning eight for Outstanding Talk Show Host The Phil Donahue Show, as well as receiving both a Special Recognition Award in 1993, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He received the Peabody Award in 1980, and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame on November 20, 1993.^[34] In 1987, he received the "Maggie" Award, highest honor of the Planned Parenthood Federation, in tribute to their founder, Margaret Sanger. In 2024, Donahue was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.^[35]

 

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.^[36] The family had lived in Centerville, Ohio, across the street from Erma Bombeck, a humorist who would become one of his contemporaries as a national voice in the 1970s and 1980s.^[37] For a brief period in the 1970s, Donahue employed Vivian Maier, an American street photographer, as a nanny for his children.^[30]

Donahue married actress Marlo Thomas on May 21, 1980.^[38] He and Thomas had no children together.

In 1999, Donahue was one of the lead candidates to host the game show Greed along with Keith Olbermann, but Chuck Woolery was hired instead.^[39]

Regarding his religion, Donahue had stated: "I will always be a Catholic. 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 marriage annulled.^[2] He had expressed admiration of Pope Francis.^[40]

In early August 2014, Donahue's youngest son, James Donahue, died suddenly at the age of 51 due to ruptured aortic aneurysm.^[41]

Donahue died following a long illness at his home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan 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."^[42][43][15]

• Donahue, Phil (1979). Donahue: My Own Story.

• Phil Donahue at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Phil Donahue – U.S. Talk-Show Host at the Wayback Machine (archived September 23, 2013) from Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Phil Donahue at IMDb
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Phil Donahue discography at Discogs