In a broadcast career that spanned more than a half-century, Hugh Downs was one of the most versatile and durable personalities on television.
A mainstay of American TV-watching rituals for generations, he held for years the world record for most time on air — more than 10,000 hours — before Regis Philbin officially surpassed him in 2004.
When Downs signed off in 1999, he was known to millions of TV viewers as the co-host with Barbara Walters of the ABC newsmagazine “20/20.”
Before that, he had been a host of NBC’s “Today” show, a long-running staple of American mornings, and before that a sidekick to Jack Paar on NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” a long-running staple of late-night viewing.
He also hosted the game show “Concentration.”
By the time he retired, Downs had been on TV nearly as long as TV had been on.
And I couldn’t wait to talk to him about it.
My interview with the legendary newsman happened in Phoenix in 2002.
We discussed his lengthy and fascinating career, including his ability to mix being a game show host with anchoring the news.
“I wore a different hat, and the audience never had trouble sorting that out, but the trade did” said Downs. “The network asked me ‘when are you going to make up your mind if you want to be an entertainer or news guy’ and I said ‘I don’t have to make up my mind, the audience has figured that out.'”
We also discussed how he discovered Barbara Walters.
“From ABC News, around the world and into your home, the stories that touch your life, with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters” was the line that introduced “20/20” during its longtime Friday night slot.
But the Downs-Walters pairing, one of the best known and most successful on-air partnerships of its era, had begun years earlier on “Today.”
Downs, a host from 1962 to 1971, had noticed Walters’s talent when she was a writer on the show and helped promote her as a “ ‘Today’ girl.”
Walters was propelled to fame, later in the role of evening news anchor, as one of the most unreservedly inquisitive interviewers on TV.
WATCH: Jim Heath and Hugh Downs
Hugh Downs died of a heart ailment July 1 at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.
He was 99.
Hugh Malcolm Downs was born Feb. 14, 1921, in Akron, Ohio.
His father sold automobile accessories.
The younger Downs attended what is now Bluffton University in Ohio and, in need of funds, found work in 1939 as a radio announcer in nearby Lima.
He gradually moved up the ranks, becoming a legendary television personality.
In 1944, Downs married Ruth Shaheen.
She died in 2017.
Survivors include two children, Hugh R. “H.R.” Downs and Deirdre Downs; a brother; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Hugh Downs
1921-2020