Mike Wallace (born Myron Leon Wallace on May 9, 1918) is an American journalist. Wallace
has been a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes since its
debut in 1968. During his career at 60 Minutes, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers, including
Deng Xiaoping, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi,
Ayatollah Khomeini, Kurt Waldheim,
Malcolm X, Yasser Arafat, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, Manuel Noriega, Jeffrey Wigand, Ayn
Rand, John F. Nash, Vladimir Putin, and
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Wallace retired as a regular correspondent in 2006.
Life and career
Mike Wallace, whose family's surname was originally "Woleck", was born in the Boston
suburb of Brookline, Massachusetts to Russian-Jewish parents. He went on to the University of
Michigan, graduating in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His first job in
radio was as newscaster and continuity writer for WOOD Radio in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. This job lasted until 1940 when he joined WXYZ Radio in Detroit, Michigan as an announcer. He then went on to became a freelance radio worker in
Chicago, Illinois. Wallace joined the U.S. Navy in 1943, serving as a communications officer during World
War II. After the war, he returned to Chicago.
Early in his career, Wallace announced for the radio action shows Ned Jordan,
Secret Agent, and The Green
Hornet. It is sometimes reported that Wallace announced for the The Lone
Ranger, but Wallace says he didn't. [1].
By the late 1940s Wallace was a staff announcer for the CBS radio network. He had a rare chance
to display his comic side when he appeared opposite Spike Jones in dialogue routines.
During the 1950s, Wallace hosted a number of game shows, including The Big
Surprise, Who's the Boss? and Who Pays?. Early in his career Wallace was
not known primarily as a news broadcaster. It was not uncommon during that period for newscasters (the term then used) to
announce, do commercials and host game shows; Douglas Edwards, John Daly, John Cameron Swayze, and Walter Cronkite hosted game shows as well. Wallace also hosted the pilot episode for Nothing but the Truth, which was helmed by Bud
Collyer when it aired under the title, To Tell the Truth. Wallace
occasionally served as a panelist on To Tell the Truth in the 1950s. He also did commercials for a variety of products,
including Fluffo (brand) shortening.
Wallace also hosted two late-night interview programs, Night Beat (broadcast in New
York only on WABD) and The Mike Wallace Interview on
ABC.
By the early 1960s, Wallace's primary income came from commercials for Parliament cigarettes. After his elder son's death, however, Wallace decided to get back into
news, and hosted an early version of The CBS Morning News, from 1963 to 1966.
On March 14, 2006, Wallace announced his retirement from 60
Minutes after 37 years with the program. He will continue working for CBS News as a "Correspondent Emeritus" [2].
He has been married four times and has two sons and a daughter. His son Peter died in a mountain climbing accident in 1962. His other son, Chris
Wallace, works as a moderator of Fox News Sunday, a syndicated television
show which runs throughout Fox's network of affiliates. He has four
grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Awards
Wallace's professional honors include at least 20 Emmy Awards, among them a report just
weeks before the 9/11 attack for an investigation on the former Soviet Union's smallpox program and concerns about terrorism. He
has also won three Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, a Robert E. Sherwood Award, a
Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Southern California School Of Journalism and a Robert F. Kennedy
Journalism Award in the international broadcast category. In September 2003, Wallace received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy, his
20th.
Depression
Wallace suffered from major clinical depression triggered by accusations of
libel and a related lawsuit. He has been treated by a
psychiatrist and has taken different medications. On his battle with depression, Wallace
said:
"At first I couldn't sleep, then I couldn't eat. I felt hopeless and I just couldn't cope and then I just lost all perspective
on things. You know, you become crazy. I had done a story for 60 Minutes on depression but I had no idea that I was now
experiencing it. Finally, I collapsed and just went to bed" (Source: CBS Cares interview below).
He revealed on a May 21, 2006, episode of 60 Minutes that
he once attempted suicide with an overdose of pills. In
recent years, Wallace has gone public with his long-standing fight against depression, testifying for Senate hearings on the topic. He has also been interviewed on the illness on Larry King Live and for various documentaries. Speaking on the issue, he has urged those who suffer
depression to seek treatment.
Criticism
Mike Wallace interviewed Gen. William Westmoreland for the CBS special The
Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception [3]. Westmoreland then sued Wallace and CBS for libel. In February 1985 , while the case was still in court, CBS offered an apology to settle with
Westmoreland after their internal investigation determined that the producers of the show had not used the proper standards of
fairness. Westmoreland accepted the apology to settle the case.
Jailed former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega called
Wallace "the epitome of sabotage journalism". Dan Rather called him a "Michigan asshole" on
Larry King Live.
Fictional portrayals
Wallace was played by actor Christopher Plummer in the 1999 feature film,
The Insider. The screenplay was based on the Vanity Fair article, The Man Who
Knew Too Much by Marie Brenner, which accused Wallace of capitulating to corporate pressure to kill a story about
Jeffrey Wigand, a whistle-blower trying to expose
the activity of "big tobacco". Wallace, for his part, disliked his on-screen portrayal and maintains he was in fact very eager to
have Wigand's story aired in full.
Arrest
In 2004, Wallace made headlines following a dispute with New York City Taxi and
Limousine Commission inspectors. Upon finding the two inspectors interviewing his driver, who they alleged was double-parked,
Wallace allegedly lunged at one of them and was subsequently arrested. He was released after receiving a court summons to answer
charges for disorderly conduct. A restaurant manager who witnessed the scene said the officers "manhandled" Wallace. Wallace has
argued that this "arrogance" may be a symptom of the current political climate, in which it is allowed to go unchecked.[4]
Trivia
- Chris Wallace interviewed his father on the November 6, 2005 edition of FOX News Sunday.
- While still a student at the University of Michigan, Mike Wallace appeared as a guest panelist on the popular radio quiz show
Information Please on February 7,
1939. He was still using the name Myron Wallace and was described as a "beardless youth" and
"representing the spirit of youth." This episode is circulating today.
See also
External links
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