40 Facts About Mike Wallace

Myron Leon Wallace was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality.

Mike Wallace was one of the original correspondents featured on CBS news program 60 Minutes, which debuted in 1968.

Mike Wallace retired as a regular full-time correspondent in 2006, but still appeared occasionally on the series until 2008.

Mike Wallace, whose family's surname was originally Wallik, was born on May 9,1918, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.

Mike Wallace identified as a Jew and claimed it was his ethnicity throughout his life.

Mike Wallace graduated from the University of Michigan four years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Mike Wallace appeared as a guest on the popular radio quiz show Information Please on February 7,1939, when he was in his last year at the University of Michigan.

Mike Wallace spent his first summer after graduation working on-air at Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Mike Wallace then became a freelance radio worker in Chicago.

Mike Wallace saw no combat but traveled to Hawaii, Australia, and Subic Bay in the Philippines, then patrolling the South China Sea, the Philippine Sea and south of Japan.

Mike Wallace announced for the radio shows Curtain Time, Ned Jordan: Secret Agent, Sky King, The Green Hornet, Curtain Time, and The Spike Jones Show.

Mike Wallace announced wrestling in Chicago in the late 1940s and early 1950s, sponsored by Tavern Pale beer.

Mike Wallace had displayed his comic skills when he appeared opposite Spike Jones in dialogue routines.

Mike Wallace was the voice of Elgin-American in the company's commercials on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life.

In 1949, Mike Wallace began to move to the new medium of television.

Early in his career, Mike Wallace was not known primarily as a news broadcaster.

Mike Wallace hosted the pilot episode of Nothing but the Truth, which was helmed by Bud Collyer when it aired under the title To Tell the Truth.

Mike Wallace occasionally served as a panelist on To Tell the Truth in the 1950s.

Lomax and Mike Wallace produced a five-part documentary about the organization, The Hate That Hate Produced, which aired during the week of July 13,1959.

Mike Wallace interviewed General William Westmoreland for the CBS special The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception that aired on January 23,1982.

In 1981, Mike Wallace was forced to apologize for a racial slur he had made about Blacks and Hispanics.

Attention was again drawn to that incident several years later when protests were raised after Mike Wallace was selected to deliver a university commencement address during a ceremony within which Nelson Mandela was awarded an honorary doctorate in absentia for his fight against racism.

Mike Wallace's reputation has been retrospectively affected by his admission that he had harassed female colleagues at 60 Minutes over many years.

On March 14,2006, Mike Wallace announced his retirement from 60 Minutes after 37 years with the program.

Mike Wallace continued working for CBS News as a "Correspondent Emeritus", albeit at a reduced pace.

Mike Wallace expressed regret for not having secured an interview with First Lady Pat Nixon.

Mike Wallace had two children with his first wife, Norma Kaphan.

From 1949 to 1954, Mike Wallace was married to his second wife, Patrizia "Buff" Cobb, an actress and stepdaughter of Gladys Swarthout.

Mike Wallace was married to his third wife, Lorraine Perigord, from 1955 until their divorce in 1986.

Out of a belief that it would be perceived as weakness, Mike Wallace kept his depression a secret until he revealed it in an interview with Bob Costas on Costas' late-night talk show, Later.

Mike Wallace received a pacemaker more than 20 years before his death, and underwent triple bypass surgery in January 2008.

Mike Wallace lived in a care facility the last several years of his life.

Mike Wallace was a friend of Nancy Reagan and her family for over 75 years.

Mike Wallace died at his residence in New Canaan, Connecticut, from natural causes on April 7,2012.

Mike Wallace was buried at West Chop Cemetery in Tisbury, Massachusetts.

In 1989, Mike Wallace was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike Wallace won three Alfred I duPont-Columbia University Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, a Robert E Sherwood Award, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Southern California School of Journalism, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, and a Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award in the international broadcast category.

In September 2003, Mike Wallace received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy, his 20th.

Mike Wallace was played by actor Christopher Plummer in the 1999 feature film The Insider.

Mike Wallace disliked his on-screen portrayal and maintained that he was in fact very eager to have Wigand's story aired in full.