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Phil Donahue dies peacefully at 88 – tributes to talk show host pioneer pour in

August 19, 2024 | | Print Article

With a career spanning decades, and a celebrity marriage that lasted even longer, small screen legend and pioneer Phil Donahue passed away at the age of 88.

(Video Credit: NBC)

Known for his eponymous daytime talk show, “Donahue,” which set the standard for programs interacting with their live studio audiences, the Cleveland, Ohio-born media personality was said to have been surrounded by loved ones at his home Sunday.

A statement from the family read, “Groundbreaking TV talk show journalist Phil Donahue died Sunday night at home surrounded by his wife of 44 years Marlo Thomas, his sister, his children, grandchildren and his beloved golden retriever Charlie.”

“Donahue was 88 years old and passed away peacefully following a long illness,” it continued, offering no further detail on the cause of death as he spent his final moments in his home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The New York Times detailed that, after working his way through a career in radio, his nearly 30 years of syndication and roughly 7,000 episodes that won 20 Emmys began under the title “The Phil Donahue Show” on WLWD-TV in 1967. “Almost from the start, ‘The Phil Donahue Show’ dispensed with familiar trappings. There was no opening monologue, no couch, no sidekick, no band — just the host and the guests, focused on a single topic.”

Donahue fathered five children with his first wife, Margaret Cooney before their marriage ended in divorce in 1975. By 1980, he had begun his second marriage to actress Marlo Thomas which endured until his dying day more than 44 years later.

People from all walks of life took to social media to remember his career and legacy which included the sincerest form of flattery courtesy of an impression by the late Phil Hartman on “Saturday Night Live.”

Earlier this year, Donahue had been among the recipients of the 2024 Presidential Medal of Freedom, and during the ceremony, President Joe Biden had said, “And before social media and clickbait news, Phil Donahue broadcast the power of personal stories in living rooms all across America. He helped change hearts and minds through honest and open dialogue. And over the course of a defining career in television and through thousands of daily conversations, Phil Donahue steered the nation’s discourse and spoke to our better angels. I wish you were still speaking there, pal. It made a big difference.”

Following the honor that his wife had received 10 years prior, Donahue said during an interview with People, “Sometimes I’ll shout my question to a guest on the screen and hope they’ll somehow hear me. But to be honest, even though the medium has changed a bit — the sets are fancier, the productions are slicker, and the hosts are thankfully more diverse — all of the talk shows still cleave to the one thing that laid at the foundation of the 7,000 episodes I taped, and that’s curiosity.”

“I still believe that, despite our differences, we’re all part of this sprawling global family, and we just need to get to know each other, so that we can share the world together,” he added as the family requested donations be made to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Phil Donahue/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund in lieu of flowers.

Kevin Haggerty
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