NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — Phil Donahue, a pioneer of the daytime television talk show format, died on Sunday night, his family said. He was 88.
His family did not provide a cause of death for the former TV star, but said that he had been suffering from a “long illness.”
Born and raised in Ohio, Donahue graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1957, with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and landed his first role in the television industry that same year when he was hired as a production assistant at Cleveland’s KYW, which operated both a radio and television station in the Cleveland market.
After relocating to Dayton for a role as anchor of the morning newscast at WHIO-TV, Donahue also hosted an interview show Conversation Piece, where he interviewed figures such as presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, boxing legend Muhammed Ali, and linguist/political commentator Noam Chomsky.
In 1967, he launched the Phil Donahue show on the Dayton television station WLWD and the show was picked up for national syndication three years later. The show would go on to a 29-year-run with more than 7,000 one-hour episodes and paving the way for the daytime talk show explosion of the 1990s alongside hosts such as Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Springer, and Sally Jesse Raphael before finally coming to an end in 1996.
Along with his daytime talk show, Donahue hosted co-hosted Pozner/Donahue alongside Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner. The round-table format show discussed social, political, and cultural issues between the Soviet Union and the U.S. until 1997.
In 2002, Donahue returned to the air with a new show in MSNBC but the show was short-lived and was canceled, apparently over Donahue’s opposition to the Invasion of Iraq.
With a career that spanned decades, Donahue accumulated an impressive collection of accolades, including 20 Daytime Emmy Awards, including eight trophies for Outstanding Talk Show Host and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
He was also a Peabody Recipient, a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.
He is survived by his wife Marlo Thomas and four children.
