Allen Funt (September 16, 1914 – September 5 1999) was an American producer-director, best known as the creator and host of Candid Camera from the 1940s to 1980s, as either a regular show or a series of specials. Its most notable run was from 1960 to 1967 on CBS.

Life and career

Funt achieved a BA in Fine Arts from Cornell University in 1934 and studied business administration at Columbia University. He began the show on ABC radio in 1946 as Candid Microphone and soon experimented with a visual version by doing a series of theatrical short films also known as Candid Microphone. These film shorts served as a springboard for his entrance into television. He wrote several books, beginning with Eavesdropper at Large: Adventures in Human Nature with "Candid Mike" (Vanguard Press, 1952). He followed Candid Kids (Bernard Geis, 1964) with Candidly, Allen Funt: A Million Smiles Later (Barricade Books, 1994).

During the 1970s, he made two reality films based on the hidden camera theme: What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? (1970) and Money Talks (1972). Funt also produced a syndicated version of Candid Camera from 1974 to 1979; his co-hosts included, at various times, John Bartholomew Tucker and Jo Ann Pflug. In the 1980s, Funt produced a series of adult-oriented videos called Candid Candid Camera.

He amassed a collection of works by the Victorian painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but was forced to sell them just before the painter's reputation revived and the prices of the paintings shot up.

Born in New York City, Funt lived for a short time in Westchester County, NY in Croton-on-Hudson. His White Gates estate was sold to opera singer Jessye Norman in the early 1990s. Following a stroke in 1993, he became incapacitated, and died in Pebble Beach, California in 1999. Candid Camera continued with his son, Peter Funt, as host.

External links

References

• Alma-Tadema (Catalogue of the Funt Collection) compiled by Russell Ash, Sotheby?s Belgravia, 1973

de:Allen Funt fr:Allen Funt