Biography of Barbara Walters

Over the years, Walters has received national recognition for her work and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Just in the past few years, Walters was: 1) inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame "for being acknowledged worldwide as one of television's most respected interviewers and journalists," 1990; 2) honored with the Lowell Thomas Award for a career in journalism excellence by Marist College, 1990; 3) honored by the Overseas Press Club with their highest award, the President's Award, 1988; 4) saluted by the American Museum of the Moving Image, March 19, 1992; 5) Lifetime Achievement Award, International Women's Media Foundation, 1991; 6) Lifetime Achievement Award, Women's Project and Productions, 1993; and 7) honored by the Museum of Television & Radio for her contributions to broadcast journalism, 1996.

Walters' numerous and timely interviews - which appear regularly on the weekly newsmagazine 20/20, The Barbara Walters Specials and, most recently, her ABC Daytime program The View, read like a Who's Who of newsmakers. She has interviewed every American President since Richard Nixon. She made journalism history by arranging the first joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin in November 1977. Another of her "firsts" was an hour long primetime conversation with Cuban President Fidel Castro - an interview which has been printed in half a dozen languages and shown all over the world.

Walters had the first formal interview with General Colin Powell since he retired as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She also interviewed First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the height of the Whitewater controversy; Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, who revealed for the first time that he has AIDS and was HIV positive when he competed in the 1988 Olympics; billionaire producer and entrepreneur David Geffen in his first-ever television interview; and Lady Bird Johnson, who spoke about her days in the White House and the current attacks on her late husband's "Great Society" programs. Walters also had several exclusive interviews with principals in the O.J. Simpson trial, including Los Angeles deputy district attorneys Christopher Darden and Marcia Clark; Simpson's longtime friend Robert Kardashian; and a much discussed interview with Simpson defense strategist Robert Shapiro immediately following the controversial verdict.

However, her interview with Christopher Reeve, following an accident which left the actor paralyzed from the neck down, was among the most extraordinary events in Walters' career. Broadcast in September 1995, the one-hour interview was the highest-rated 20/20 program in recent years and was watched by nearly 29 million viewers. The following April, the broadcast received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award.

The Barbara Walters Specials are continuously the top-rated specials of the year. Among those she interviewed recently were Demi Moore, Heather Locklear, Kelsey Grammer, Liam Neeson, Michael Douglas, Roseanne, Jim Carrey, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Walters' The Ten Most Fascinating People special, launched in 1993, offers a year-end review of the most prominent newsmakers of the year as well as the selection of the "most fascinating" individual. Barbara Walters Present Six To Watch, another innovative annual broadcast, spotlights young people from a variety of backgrounds who are on the verge of major achievements in their respective careers.

Walters is co-host and co-executive producer of the ABC Daytime program, The View, a fresh and lively one-hour daily broadcast hosted by a team of four women of different ages and backgrounds. Since its debut in August 1997, The View has won critical praise and eight Daytime Emmy Award nominations including outstanding talk show and hosts as well as steadily increasing audiences. In addition to developing and overseeing the program with her longtime executive producer Bill Geddie, Walters joins the panel on an average of twice a week.

"In their year together," TV Guide recently said, "the members of ABC's gang of five have reinvented morning chat..."

Barbara Walters marked her 20th anniversary at ABC with a highly rated 90-minute career retrospective, which featured many of Walters' most memorable interviews from both 20/20 and the Specials, including Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Bette Davis, Laurence Olivier and the Shah of Iran.

Walters joined ABC NEWS in 1976 as the first woman to co-host the network news. In 1984, she joined Hugh Downs as host of the ABC newsmagazine 20/20.

Prior to joining ABC, she appeared on NBC's Today for 15 years, longer than any other woman on the program. She began on the Today show as a writer, and within a year became a reporter-at-large, developing, writing and editing her own reports and interviews. In 1974, NBC officially designated her as the program's first female co-host.

Walters was a member of the NBC News team that went to the People's Republic of China to cover the visits of President Richard Nixon in 1972 and President Gerald Ford in 1975.

In addition to her responsibilities on the Today show, she hosted her own highly popular syndicated series, Not for Women Only, for five years and contributed on a regular basis to the NBC Radio Network.

Early in her career, she was a writer for CBS News and before that, she was the youngest producer with NBC-TV's New York station WNBC-TV.

Walters is the recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from Ohio State University, Temple University, Marymount College, Wheaton College and Hofstra University.

A native of Boston, Walters is the daughter of the famed entertainment impresario, Lou Walters. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and has one daughter.