Hugh Malcolm Downs (born February 14, 1921) is a retired American broadcaster, television host, producer, and author. He served as anchor of 20/20, host of The Today Show, announcer for the Tonight Show with Jack Paar, host of Concentration game show, host of the PBS talk show Over Easy and co-host of the syndicated talk show Not for Women Only. He is not related to the well-known CBS broadcaster of the 1940s, Bill Downs.

Early life

Hugh Downs was born in Akron, Ohio and educated at Lima Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio, Bluffton College, a Mennonite school in Bluffton, Ohio, and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan during the period 1938 to 1941. He worked as a radio announcer and program director at WLOK in Lima, Ohio after his first year of college. In 1940 he moved on to WWJ in Detroit. Downs served briefly in the U.S. Army in 1943 and then joined the NBC radio network at WMAQ in Chicago as an announcer, where he lived until 1954. He married a coworker, Ruth Shaheen in 1944. He also attended Columbia University in New York City during 1955?56.

Television career

Hugh Downs interviewing Timothy Leary on an October 1967 NBC News report.

Downs appeared as a panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth.

Downs earned a postgraduate degree in gerontology from Hunter College while he was hosting Over Easy, a PBS television program about aging that aired from 1977 to 1983.

He was probably best known as the Emmy Award-winning co-anchor (again paired with Walters) of the ABC news TV show 20/20, a primetime news magazine program, from the show's second episode in 1978 until his retirement in 1999. His closing tagline "We're in touch, so you be in touch", was written by Brock Brower.

In 1985, he was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the record for the greatest number of hours on network commercial television (15,188 hours), though he lost the record for most hours on all forms of television to Regis Philbin in 2004.

A published composer himself, Downs hosted the PBS showcase for classical music, Live from Lincoln Center from 1990 to 1996.

Downs can currently be seen in infomercials for healthsecrets.com and another one for a personal coach. He did an infomercial for Where There's a Will There's an A in 2003. His informercial work since then has aroused some controversy, with many arguing the products are scams.^[1] As of the summer of 2008, Downs can also be seen in regional public service announcements in Arizona, where he currently lives, for that state's motor vehicles division.^[2]

Film appearances

• Survival of Spaceship Earth (1972) interviewed along with Rene Dubos, Margaret Mead, and John D. Rockefeller, III in a documentary on the Earth's environmental crisis
• Nothing by Chance (1975) executive producer and narrator ? a documentary about the biplanes that barnstormed across America during the 1920s
• Oh, God! Book II (1980) newscaster

Public service

Downs was a special consultant to the United Nations for refugee problems from 1961-64 and served as Chairman of the Board of the United States Committee for UNICEF.

Downs wrote a column for Science Digest during the 1960s. He was Science Consultant to Westinghouse Laboratories and the Ford Foundation and an elected member of the National Academy of Science. He is a Board of Governors member of the National Space Society and was a longtime president and chairman of the predecessor National Space Institute. The asteroid 71000 Hughdowns is named after him.

The auditorium of Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio and the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University are named in his honor.

Downs made a 2001 cameo appearance on the television cartoon series Family Guy in the episode "The Kiss Seen Around the World", at the end of this appearance, he quotes "Hugh Downs Away", a play on his name and the quote "Superheroes Away". He has also provided his voice for a Family Guy commercial on Adult Swim in 2006.

Personal life

Downs and his wife have two children. He is an avid sailor and airplane pilot. He is a libertarian. He is colorblind. Downs currently resides in the Phoenix-area enclave of Paradise Valley.

Books

• Yours Truly... 1960, Holt, Rinehart and Winston (no ISBN); autobiography
• A Shoal of Stars: A True-Life Account of Everyman's Dream: Sailing Across the Pacific to Exotic Lands, 1967, Doubleday, (no ISBN)
• Rings Around Tomorrow, 1970, Doubleday, (no ISBN), an anthology of Down's science articles
• Potential: The Way to Emotional Maturity, 1973, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-03742-2
• Thirty Dirty Lies About Old Age, 1979, Argus, ISBN 0-89505-033-1
• The Best Years: How to Plan for Fulfillment, Security, and Happiness in the Retirement Years, 1981, Delacorte Press hardcover, ISBN 0-385-28076-9
  • The Best Years Book, 1982, Dell Publishing paperback, ISBN 0-440-53901-3
• On Camera: My 10,000 Hours on Television, 1986, Putnam: ISBN 0-399-13203-1, Thorndike Press large print: ISBN 0-89621-788-4
• Fifty to Forever, 1994, Thomas Nelson Inc, ISBN 0-8407-7786-8, a collection of essays
• Perspectives, 1995, Turner Publications, ISBN 1-57036-219-X, 50 selections from his ten-minute radio essays
• Greater Phoenix: The Desert in Bloom, 1999, Towery Publications, ISBN 1-881096-69-6
• Pure Gold: A Lifetime of Love and Marriage, 2001, Arizona State University Press, ISBN 0-9717160-0-5
• My America: What My Country Means to Me, by 150 Americans from All Walks of Life, (editor), 2002, Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-3369-7, large print: ISBN 0-7432-4089-8
• Letter to a Great Grandson: A Message of Love, Advice, and Hopes for the Future, 2004, Scribner, ISBN 0-7432-4723-X

References

1. ↑ http://www.infomercialwatch.org/reports/treasury.shtml
2. ↑ Hugh Downs - Other works

External links

• ABC News' bio. of Hugh Downs from Internet archive
• Biography from the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Hugh Downs School of Communication at Arizona State University
• Interview transcript of Downs in 2005 on his libertarian views

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