Regis Philbin
At the point of his induction into the Television Hall of Fame, Regis Philbin received formal recognition from the industry in which he had spent his professional life. Born on August 25, 1931, in Manhattan, Philbin attended Cardinal Hayes High School and later studied at the University of Notre Dame. He died on July 24, 2020, in Greenwich.
Philbin worked across multiple areas of the entertainment industry during his career. He served as a television presenter, talk show host, game show host, television actor, film actor, voice actor, singer, and musician. Two programs with which he was notably associated as host were Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Live with Kelly and Mark. The range of formats in which he worked reflects a career that moved between different types of television production rather than remaining fixed to one.
The honors Philbin received during his lifetime were varied and specific. He earned a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host and a separate Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host, placing him among the television personalities to receive Emmy recognition in both categories. Beyond those awards, he also received a TV Guide Award, the Walter Camp Distinguished American Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The dual Daytime Emmy wins in distinct hosting categories offer a concrete measure of the breadth of his television work, and together with his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, they represent the most formally documented honors attached to his name across his decades in the industry.
Quotes by Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin's insights on:
I did, of course, eventually find my way into television, taking all kinds of jobs, climbing the ranks rung by rung. Anyway, it was several years later, when I was working nationally in Hollywood as the announcer and second banana on ABC-TV's late-night entry, 'The Joey Bishop Show,' that I had my big moment.
All through high school and college, my parents would ask me over and over again, 'What are you going to do with your life? What do you want to be?' Well, in my heart I wanted to be a singer like Bing, but I worried about the reality of that dream. Did I think for one minute that I had the voice to pull it off? Of course not.
I must have been six or seven years old at the time. My family lived on the bottom floor of a two-story house on Cruger Avenue in the Bronx, and every night at 9:30, I sat by my little radio in our kitchen and listened to a half hour of Bing's records regularly spilling out over WNEW.
Kathie Lee and I were working together on our 'Live' morning show when she started dating Frank. I always loved trying to get her to tell me about her new romance, and it wasn't long before we were watching them take their vows in front of close friends in Southhampton.
I like Strahan a lot. I've known him for years. He was a Giant here - in many ways. Had a big following with the New York Giants. He's very funny. He's got a great sense of humor.
Anyone who's ever driven to Atlantic City knows that Trump's got a big billboard. For years, you used to see his angry face on it. I said, 'Trump, that expression is making people afraid to go to the Taj Mahal. Why don't you give them a big smile.? 'C'mon in, folks! Spend your money here!' I think we got that corrected.
We play a lot of tennis, and we work out at the gym three or four times a week. As you get older, you feel those aches and pains, so Advil's become a friend in the house.
I had so many local shows before I came back to New York, which is the ideal place to do a national syndicated show. Then I spent five years trying to convince people to give me a shot in the syndication business.
All my life, all I've wanted to do was a talk show, and I've done it for most of my life. Now to break away from that is kind of a challenge.
