Morley Safer was a Canadian-American broadcast journalist, reporter, and correspondent for CBS News.
28 Facts About Morley Safer
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Morley Safer was best known for his long tenure on the news magazine 60 Minutes, whose cast he joined in 1970 after its second year on television.
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Morley Safer was the longest-serving reporter on 60 Minutes, the most watched and most profitable program in television history.
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In 2009, Safer donated his papers to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Morley Safer was born to an Austrian Jewish family in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna and Max Morley Safer, an upholsterer.
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Morley Safer had an older brother, Leon Safer, and an older sister, Esther Safer.
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Morley Safer attended Harbord Collegiate Institute and Bloor Collegiate Institute in Toronto, Ontario, and briefly attended the University of Western Ontario before he dropped out to become a newspaper reporter.
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Morley Safer began his journalism career as a reporter for various newspapers in Ontario and England in 1955.
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Morley Safer worked from the same desk that had once been used by Edward R Murrow.
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Morley Safer's report was among the earliest to paint a bleak picture of the Vietnam War, showing apparently innocent civilians as victims.
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Ex-Marine Larry Engelmann, author of a story on the Vietnam War, claimed Morley Safer's story was "highly sensational".
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Morley Safer received an Emmy Award in 1971 for his investigation and reporting of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
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Morley Safer authored the bestselling book, Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam.
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Morley Safer's trip was the basis of a 60 Minutes show in 1989, which Safer said got a reaction of annoyance from some veterans, and a positive reaction from others.
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Morley Safer was one of the most important journalists in any medium, ever.
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Morley Safer broke ground in war reporting and made a name that will forever be synonymous with 60 Minutes.
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In 1970, CBS producer Don Hewitt asked Morley Safer to replace Harry Reasoner on 60 Minutes, as Reasoner had just left to anchor the ABC Evening News.
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Morley Safer was persistent in the pursuit of facts needed to support the accuracy of his stories.
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Morley Safer typed stories on his manual typewriter even after computers were in common use.
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Hewitt credited Morley Safer with having a "great eye for stories", whether they were sympathetic or tough.
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Morley Safer could write about offbeat subjects to give the show flavor, such as a piece he did in Finland about the Finns' obsession with the tango dance.
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In 1994 he hosted a CBS News Special, One for the Road: A Conversation with Charles Kuralt and Morley Safer, which marked Kuralt's retirement from CBS.
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Morley Safer retired after 46 years with CBS, a week before his death; by then Safer had set the record for the show's longest-serving correspondent.
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Morley Safer narrated several documentaries, including Exodus 1947, American Experience, American Masters, Bicentennial Minutes, and Saigon.
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In January 2019, the Morley Safer Award was created and sent out its inaugural call for entries.
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Morley Safer married Jane Fearer, an anthropology student, in 1968 in London, where he was serving as bureau chief for CBS News.
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Morley Safer died at his New York home from pneumonia on May 19,2016, just eight days after announcing his retirement from 60 Minutes following 46 seasons with the show.
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Morley Safer was laid to rest at Roselawn Avenue Cemetery in Toronto.