Regis Francis Xavier Philbin was an American television presenter, talk show host, game show host and actor. 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. Philbin debuted and hosted the US version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Million Dollar Password, and the first season of America’s Got Talent.
About Regis Philbin in brief
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin was an American television presenter, talk show host, game show host and actor. 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. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Philbin served in the U.S. Navy. He got his television start serving as a page for The Tonight Show in the 1950s. Philbin debuted and hosted the US version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Million Dollar Password, and the first season of America’s Got Talent. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most hours on U. S. television. He was born in the Bronx, New York, on August 25, 1931. It was long believed that he was an only child, but he announced on Live withregis and Kelly in February 2007 that he had a brother named Frank, who had died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma several days earlier. He left his job as assistant news editor to Baxter Ward at KCOP, Los Angeles, in 1957 to make his fortune in New York. His first talk show was The Regis Philbin Show in 1961 on KOGO-TV in San Diego. In 1964, he hosted That RegisPhilbin Show, a nationally. syndicated show for Westinghouse Broadcasting replacing The Steve Allen Show after Steve Allen refused to. renew his contract. The audience did not accept Philbin as a replacement for Allen’s zany antics and the appearance lasted only a little over four months because of dismal ratings, especially compared to Johnny Carson in the same time slot.
He later went through a few behind-the-scenes jobs in television and radio before moving into broadcasting. In 1968, he launched an unplanned diatribe about his grapevine and his thick accent so during the opening of one program, he quit on air abruptly. In 1995, he revealed in his book, I’m Only One Man!, that this was actually a publicity stunt planned by Joey Bishop and Philbin and that he wanted to draw in some viewers and draw some of Johnny Carson’s viewers. He said his brother had asked not to be mentioned on television or in the press while still alive to protect his privacy. In 2011, he reiterates this assertion in his memoir, How I Got This Way,. He said he was supposedly named ‘Regis’ because his father wanted him to attend his alma mater, the prestigious Regis High School. His father, Francis ‘Frank’ Philbin, was a U. s. Marine of Irish descent who served in. the Pacific. His mother, Filomena was a member of an Albanian-Italian immigrant family from Greci. Philbin had a Catholic upbringing and attended Our Lady of Solace grammar school and graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School before attending the. University of. Notre Dame in 1953 with a degree in sociology. He also was an announcer on The Tonight show in 1962.
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