Barbara Walters, the intrepid interviewer, anchor and program host who blazed the way as the first woman to become a TV news superstar during a career remarkable for its duration and variety, has died. She was 93.
Walters made headlines in 1976 as the first female network news anchor, with an unprecedented $1 million salary that drew gasps. Her drive was legendary as she competed — not just with rival networks, but with colleagues at her own network — for each big "get" in a world jammed with more and more interviewers, including female journalists following in her trail.
In May 2014, she taped her final episode of "The View" amid much ceremony to end a five-decade career in television . During a commercial break, a throng of TV newswomen she had paved the way for — including Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Robin Roberts and Connie Chung — posed for a group portrait.Her career began with no such inklings of majesty.
Although she gained celebrity status in her own right, the celebrity world was familiar to her even as a little girl. Her father was an English-born booking agent who turned an old Boston church into a nightclub. Lou Walters opened other clubs in Miami and New York, and young Barbara spent her after-hours with regulars such as Joseph Kennedy and Howard Hughes.
Reports failed to note her job duties would be split between the network's entertainment division and ABC News, then mired in third place. Meanwhile, Harry Reasoner, her seasoned "ABC Evening News" co-anchor, was said to resent her salary and celebrity orientation.Comedian Gilda Radner satirized her on "Saturday Night Live" as a rhotacistic commentator named "Baba Wawa.