Regis Philbin

Regis Francis Xavier Philbin ( REE-jis; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020) was an American television presenter, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest-working man in show business", he held the Guinness World Record for the most hours spent on US television.

Philbin was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, he served in the US Navy and got his television start serving as a page for The Tonight Show in the 1950s. Philbin got his first network television exposure in 1967 as Joey Bishop's sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show. He is most widely known as the co-host of the New York City–based nationally syndicated talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, starting in 1988, which became Live! with Regis and Kelly in 2001, and continued as Live! with Kelly after Philbin's departure in 2011. He is also well known as the original host of the American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the most-watched prime-time series of the 1999–2000 US television season.

Philbin also hosted Million Dollar Password and the first season of America's Got Talent. Regis Philbin died on July 25th, 2020 in Greenwich, Connecticut of natural causes related to coronary artery disease; he was 88 years old.

Early life

Regis Francis Xavier Philbin was born on August 25, 1931, in the Manhattan borough of New York City. His father, Francis "Frank" Philbin, was a US Marine of Irish descent who served in the Pacific, and his mother, Filomena ("Florence"; née Boscia), was a member of an Albanian-Italian immigrant family from Greci. Philbin had a Catholic upbringing. He was supposedly named "Regis" because his father wanted him to attend his alma mater, the prestigious Regis High School. It was long believed that he was an only child, but he announced on Live with Regis and Kelly in February 2007 that he had a brother named Frank (March 1, 1951 – January 27, 2007), who had died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma several days earlier. Philbin said his brother had asked not to be mentioned on television or in the press while still alive to protect his privacy.

Philbin was raised in the Van Nest neighborhood of the Bronx. He attended Our Lady of Solace grammar school and Cardinal Hayes High School. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Notre Dame, where he lived in Fisher Hall, and graduated in 1953 with a degree in sociology. He later served in the US Navy as a supply officer Lieutenant Junior Grade and then went through a few behind-the-scenes jobs in television and radio before moving into broadcasting.

Career

Early work

In his earliest show business work, Philbin was a page at The Tonight Show in 1955. Later he wrote for Los Angeles–based talk-show host Tom Duggan and nervously filled in one night when the hard-drinking Duggan failed to arrive. Philbin soon got a job at KCOP as assistant news editor to Baxter Ward, and when the station's sportscaster did not arrive one day, Philbin filled in. In 1957, Regis left his job in Los Angeles and returned to New York City. His replacement at KCOP was George Van Valkenburg. He also was an announcer on The Tonight Show in 1962.

His first talk show was The Regis Philbin Show in 1961 on KOGO-TV (now KGTV) in San Diego. after serving as news anchor for the station. For budget reasons, he had no writing staff, so he began each show with what became his hallmark, the "host chat" segment influenced by Jack Paar, where he engaged his audience (and later his co-host) in discussions about his life and the day's events. In 1964, Westinghouse Broadcasting picked up Philbin's talk show for national syndication in the late night time slot (replacing Steve Allen). That Regis Philbin Show failed to attract many stations and Westinghouse replaced Philbin with Merv Griffin in 1965.

Talk shows

In 1964, Philbin hosted That Regis Philbin Show, a nationally syndicated show for Westinghouse Broadcasting replacing The Steve Allen Show after Steve Allen returned to New York to replace Garry Moore as host of CBS-TV's I've Got a Secret. The audience did not accept Philbin as a replacement for Allen's zany antics and the appearance lasted slightly more than four months because of dismal ratings, especially compared to Johnny Carson in the same time slot. Nevertheless, Philbin has cited Carson as an influence.

Philbin gained his first network TV exposure in 1967 as Joey Bishop's sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show on television (1967–1969). In a Johnny Carson-Ed McMahon vein, Bishop would playfully tease Philbin and he would take the barbs in stride. But his feelings were hurt when he learned from the network grapevine that ABC executives were dissatisfied with his work and his thick accent, so during the opening of one 1968 program, he launched an unplanned diatribe about "not being wanted and letting down" the program and abruptly quit on air. A few nights later, assured by Bishop that all was well and the barbs were not personal, Philbin returned. As revealed in his 1995 book, I'm Only One Man!, this was actually a publicity stunt planned by Bishop and Philbin beforehand. He reiterates this assertion in his 2011 memoir, How I Got This Way, explaining that it was intended to draw in some of Johnny Carson's viewers. When The Joey Bishop Show was canceled, Bishop returned the favor and walked off the show on air unannounced, leaving Philbin to carry the night on his own. A 1978 book called The Great 1960s Quiz, authored by Dan Carlinsky (published by Harper & Row), asked: "Who was Regis Philbin?" (p. 7) The answer was "Joey Bishop's sidekick on his late night show." (p. 124)

During the early 1970s, Philbin co-hosted Tempo on Los Angeles station KHJ-TV (now KCAL-TV). He also commuted on weekends to St. Louis, where he filmed Regis Philbin's Saturday Night in St. Louis on KMOX-TV (now KMOV).

From 1975 to 1981, he co-hosted A.M. Los Angeles, a local morning talk show on KABC-TV, where Philbin was already working reviewing movies for newscasts on the station. He co-hosted first with Sarah Purcell (1975 to 1978), then with Cyndy Garvey (1978 to 1981). Philbin's presence brought the show from the bottom of the local ratings to No. 1.

From November 30, 1981, to April 9, 1982, Philbin and Mary Hart co-hosted "The Regis Philbin Show," a national morning variety series for NBC. Philbin was hoping to transfer his success from KABC to a national network show, but the show was not successful and lasted only 18 weeks. During 1982 to 1988, Philbin hosted the shows Health Styles and Lifestyles with Regis Philbin on the Cable Health Network and its successor, the Lifetime television network.

After Garvey left Los Angeles in 1982 and moved to New York City, Philbin rejoined her on The Morning Show, on WABC-TV starting on April 4, 1983. At the time, the 9 am time slot for WABC suffered from low Nielsen ratings because of competition from WNBC-TV's Donahue and WCBS-TV's game show block featuring The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough. After Garvey left again and Ann Abernathy briefly shared co-hosting duties, Philbin was paired with Kathie Lee Johnson (later Gifford), in June 1985, and ratings improved significantly. The show became nationally syndicated on September 5, 1988, as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee and the success continued. The program replaced A.M. Los Angeles upon its cancellation in 1991 and was eventually picked up by all of the ABC owned-and-operated stations except for WLS in Chicago, which aired The Oprah Winfrey Show in that time slot and had done so since the show's debut as A.M. Chicago.

When Gifford departed in 2000, the show was temporarily named Live! with Regis. Philbin had guest co-hosts until a replacement was found. Philbin won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2001. Kelly Ripa was chosen as the permanent co-host in February 2001, and the show was renamed Live! with Regis and Kelly. Their chemistry proved to be successful as the show continued to enjoy high ratings. Later in the year, Philbin and Ripa's show went to air several minutes after the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center (1973–2001) during the September 11 terrorist attacks, with the two reacting in real time after the second plane crashed into the south tower and its subsequent collapse.

Philbin set a Guinness World Record for "Most Hours on Camera" on his August 20, 2004, Live show (surpassing Hugh Downs), which gave him a total of 15,188 hours on television.

In 2008, Philbin's contract with ABC was renewed through 2011. Under this contract, Philbin reportedly earned more than US $21 million per annum. He received a similar contract with CBS for hosting Million Dollar Password.

Philbin departed Live with Regis and Kelly after hosting his final show on November 18, 2011.

Game shows

Philbin was also a game show host. He hosted The Neighbors, a short-lived game show on ABC from late 1975 to early 1976. The show had two female contestants guessing which of her three women neighbors said gossipy things about her. In 1976, he was a "field reporter" for ABC's Almost Anything Goes, an American adaptation of the British game show, It's a Knockout.