Mike Wallace (6)

American journalist, game show host, actor and media personality. Born May 9, 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts. Died April 7, 2012 in New Canaan, Connecticut. In the late 1940s, Wallace was a staff announcer for the CBS radio network. He had displayed his comic skills when he appeared opposite Spike Jones in dialogue routines. He was also the voice of Elgin-American in their commercials on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life. As "Myron Wallace", he portrayed New York City detective Lou Kagel on the short-lived radio drama series "Crime on the Waterfront". In 1949, Wallace starred under the name Myron Wallace in a short-lived television police drama, Stand By for Crime. Wallace hosted a number of TV game shows in the 1950s, including The Big Surprise, Who's the Boss? and Who Pays?. Wallace also hosted the pilot episode for Nothing but the Truth, which was helmed by Bud Collyer when it aired under the title To Tell the Truth. Wallace occasionally served as a panelist on To Tell the Truth in the 1950s. He also did commercials for a variety of products, including Procter & Gamble's Fluffo brand shortening. Wallace also hosted two late-night interview programs, Night Beat (broadcast in New York City during 1955–1957, only on DuMont's WABD) and The Mike Wallace Interview on ABC in 1957–1958. In 1959, Louis Lomax and Wallace produced a five-part documentary about the Nation of Islam, "The Hate That Hate Produced", which aired during the week of July 13, 1959. By the early 1960s, Wallace's primary income came from commercials for Parliament cigarettes, touting their "man's mildness" (he had a contract with Philip Morris to pitch their cigarettes as a result of their original sponsorship of The Mike Wallace Interview). Between June 1961 and June 1962 he hosted a New York–based nightly interview program for Westinghouse Broadcasting called PM East. Also in the early 1960s, Wallace was the host of the David Wolper–produced Biography series. Wallace hosted an early version of CBS Morning News from 1963 through 1966. In 1967, Wallace anchored the documentary "CBS Reports: The Homosexuals". Wallace was one of the original correspondents for CBS' 60 Minutes, which debuted in 1968. On March 14, 2006, Wallace announced his retirement from 60 Minutes after 37 years with the program. He continued working for CBS News as a "Correspondent Emeritus", albeit at a reduced pace. Wallace's last CBS interview was with retired baseball star Roger Clemens in January 2008 on 60 Minutes. Wallace interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career, including politicians, celebrities, and academics, such as Pearl S. Buck, Deng Xiaoping, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Jiang Zemin, Ruhollah Khomeini, Kurt Waldheim, Frank Lloyd Wright, Yasser Arafat, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, Manuel Noriega, John Nash, Gordon B. Hinckley, Vladimir Putin, Maria Callas, Barbra Streisand, Salvador Dalí, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayn Rand.