15 Facts About Robert MacNeil

Robert MacNeil partnered with Jim Lehrer to create the landmark public television news program The Robert MacNeil Report in 1975.

Robert MacNeil grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, went to boarding school at Rothesay Collegiate School and Upper Canada College, then attended Dalhousie University and later graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955.

On November 22,1963, MacNeil covered President John F Kennedy's visit to Dallas for NBC News.

In 1967, Robert MacNeil began covering American and European politics for the BBC.

Robert MacNeil rose to fame during his coverage of the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings for PBS, for which he received an Emmy Award.

Robert MacNeil remained involved with the news program until 2013 as one of the heads of MacNeil-Lehrer Productions.

In director Michael Almereyda's 2000 modern-day adaptation of Hamlet, Robert MacNeil portrayed the Player King, reimagined as a TV news reporter.

Robert MacNeil joined PBS's coverage of the attacks and their aftermath, interviewing reporters and giving his thoughts on the events.

In 2007, Robert MacNeil hosted the PBS television miniseries America at a Crossroads, which presented independently produced documentaries about the "War on Terrorism".

In 1998, for Season 29's "Slimey to the Moon" story arc, Robert MacNeil took the role of co-anchor with Kermit the Frog, as Slimey, Oscar the Grouch's pet worm, and four other worms made a landing on the Moon.

Robert MacNeil chaired the MacDowell Colony's board of directors from 1993 to 2010.

Robert MacNeil became a naturalized American citizen in 1997, and became an Order of Canada officer that same year.

Robert MacNeil was married to Rosemarie Coopland, Jane Doherty, and Donna Nappi Richards MacNeil.

Robert MacNeil died of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on April 12,2024, at the age of 93, confirmed by his daughter Alison Robert MacNeil.

Robert MacNeil wrote books, many of which are about his career as a journalist.