Mike Wallace Dead at 93
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- Category: Entertainment News
- Published on Sunday, 08 April 2012 20:14
- Written by Janet Walker
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Mike Wallace, hard-hitting television correspondent, the face of Sixty Minutes, whose very name was synonymous with interrogative, investigative journalism., has died.
Wallace’s death, for those who love investigative journalism, marks the end of an era. He didn’t mind if he stepped on well heeled toes, he didn’t coddle or walk on egg shells around well connected or historical names. If he came to see you, with camera in tow, it’s been said he could reduce grown men to piles of sweating mess.
Surprisingly, few knew he had been diagnosed with depression. Knowing he had his own personal cross to bear, which included the death of a child, depression, and suicidal thoughts humanized him, effected by the layers of corruption he encountered and the stories he worked diligently at exposing.
Wallace's professional honors include at least 20 Emmy Awards; three Alfred I. DuPont - Columbia University Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, a Robert E. Sherwood Award, a distinguished Achievement Awards from the University of Southern California School of Journalism and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards in the international broadcasting category.
In September 2003, Wallace received a lifetime Achievement Emmy, his 20th. In October, 2007 Wallace was awarded the University of Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement on journalism. He was the bedrock at the black rock; journalism at its best.
Born in 1918, the son of Russian Jewish parents, Wallace attended University of Michigan where he earned a Bachelors of Arts. His reporting career began at the university’s student newspaper, the Michigan Daily. Always on the cutting edge of technology Wallace gravitated to Radio and of course, television. In 1968, he began what he would be forever known as; a member of a four man team of dedicated investigative journalists anchoring the Sunday evening news magazine Sixty Minutes.
His death was announced on CBS Sunday Morning. He was 93.
