Biography:

Barbara Walters, the person who inspired Oprah Winfrey to become a television personality, wields superlative journalistic talent. As an interviewer, her skills are revolutionary and her line of questioning solicitous and gritty in many ways. Celebrities, newsmakers and statesmen have approached Walters than any other journalist on earth.

Ms. Walters is, if anything, a “scoop interviewer” par excellence. In 1999, she scored the first interview with Monica Lewinsky. It earned the highest ratings ever for a news and current affairs show.

Since Richard Nixon, all US Presidents and their wives have submitted themselves to her interviews. She was also the first to interview George Bush after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks in 2001.

Just when many assumed they were permanently not in speaking terms, Walters rocked the boat in journalism in 1977 when she got Egypt President Anwar Sadat and Israel Prime Minister Menachem to sit down for a joint interview. The same tenacity allowed her to interview more international leaders like Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Boris Yeltsin of Russia, Jiang Zemin of China, and Moammar Qadaffi of Libya. Among US journalists, Walters was the first to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Barbara Walters is well respected for The Barbara Walters Specials. Debuted in 1976, this consistently top-rated series is highly famous for engaging some of the greatest entertainers like Grace Kelly (Princess of Monaco), Sir Laurence Olivier, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Sarah Ferguson, Sean Connery, Roseanne, and Richard Pryor.

Until September 2004, she has spent 25 years as co-host and chief correspondent of ABC News’ well-loved gabfest 20/20. In its final run, 20/20 allowed Walters to speak with a convicted Martha Stewart, and revisit Fidel Castro decades after their newsmaker conference. It was also in this season when former Vice-President Al Gore obliged his first interview since his defeat in the 2000 presidential race. Walters also gave as much airtime to President Bush’s Christmas celebrations as to the lives of the Iraqi immigrants in the US after the Gulf War.

More than ever today, she is omnipresent in ABC’s primetime news programs. Apart from the Barbara Walters Specials, Walters has featured the most famous individuals since 1993 with the annual special, The 10 Most Fascinating People.

Younger fans may know Ms. Walters as the creator and co-host of the 2003 Daytime Emmy Award winner, The View. Also its executive producer, Walter co-created The View with the female population in mind. In this show, a panel of hosts, which has included Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg, reaches out to women. While Walters offers a grounded perspective for older demographics, lighthearted women bask in Joy Behar’s wisecracks and career-driven and African-American females find an ally in lawyer Star Jones. Meredith Vierra speaks in behalf of those in their midlife, Elizabeth Hasselbeck for a young generation. In the end, the show has been successful at humanizing Barbara Walters, the legendary anchorwoman.

Even before, Ms. Walters has, in her own way, given women a voice. Until she anchored the ABC Evening News in 1976, it had been unheard of for a woman to be a giant network’s primetime newscaster.

Likewise, she shook the patriarchal system at NBC in 1974 when the network officially named her as the first woman to co-host The Today Show. Fifteen years earlier, she had only been one of the show’s writers and researchers before becoming reporter-at-large.

Barbara Walters was born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 25, 1931 to the founder of the Latin Quarter nightclubs. She holds an English degree from Sarah Lawrence College, which initially sent her to a blossoming career at CBS.

A recipient of several Emmy awards, Walters is a hall-of-famer in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.