Barbara Walters was a broadcasting pioneer, interviewing dozens of well-known faces from former President Richard Nixon to pop star Taylor Swift.
“I do my homework, so I’ve a sure sense of authority,” the previous View cohost — who died on December 30, 2022, on the age of 93 — solely informed Us Weekly in Could 2014 of getting ready for her sit-downs. “Typically I do know extra in regards to the individual than they do themselves. I’m very hardly ever nervous. Once I end an interview, I do ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda,’ and it drives me loopy, however after I’m really doing the interview, I’m high-quality in authority and that’s an excellent feeling.”
Walters received her begin on NBC’s At the moment Present in 1961, the place she was shortly tasked with dealing with lighthearted tales and climate experiences. Inside one yr, she grew to become the published’s reporter-at-large and started conducting severe interviews. The Boston native went on to helm the ABC Night Information, 20/20 and The View.
Inside Walters’ six many years of reporting expertise, she has interviewed the likes of Nixon, Fidel Castro, Christopher Reeve and Monica Lewinsky, the latter of which noticed a record-breaking 74 million viewers tune in.
Lewinsky, the previous White Home intern who notably had an affair with Invoice Clinton whereas he was the President of america, sat down with Walters in 1999 to debate her aspect of the story.
“I knew Barbara for over half of my life. We met within the spring of 1998, within the midst of the Starr investigation; I used to be 24. I remarked that this was the primary time I’d ever been in deep trouble,” the San Francisco native wrote through Twitter in December 2022, shortly after information broke of Walters’ loss of life. “I’d principally been an excellent child — received good grades, didn’t do medication, by no means shoplifted and so forth. With out lacking a beat, Barbara stated: ‘Monica, subsequent time shoplift.’”
She continued: “We stayed in contact over the previous 25 years. The final time we noticed one another was for lunch just a few years in the past. After all, she was charming, witty and a few of her questions had been nonetheless her signature interview fashion: ‘So inform me, Monica, how do you are feeling … and so forth and so forth.’ She was the very first individual with whom I ever sat for a tv interview … and will definitely be my most memorable. Barbara will likely be missed by many — together with me.”
Walters was additionally recognized for internet hosting an annual particular, titled Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating Individuals, the place she spoke with an array of public figures earlier than the top of the calendar yr.
Scroll beneath to revisit the late journalistic icon’s memorable interviews via the years:
Credit score: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
Barbara Walters’ Most Well-known Interviews Via the Years: Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro and Extra
Barbara Walters was a broadcasting pioneer, interviewing dozens of well-known faces from former President Richard Nixon to pop star Taylor Swift.
“I do my homework, so I’ve a sure sense of authority,” the previous View cohost — who died on December 30, 2022, on the age of 93 — solely informed Us Weekly in Could 2014 of getting ready for her sit-downs. “Typically I do know extra in regards to the individual than they do themselves. I am very hardly ever nervous. Once I end an interview, I do ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda,’ and it drives me loopy, however after I’m really doing the interview, I am high-quality in authority and that is an excellent feeling.”
Walters received her begin on NBC’s At the moment Present in 1961, the place she was shortly tasked with dealing with lighthearted tales and climate experiences. Inside one yr, she grew to become the published’s reporter-at-large and started conducting severe interviews. The Boston native went on to helm the ABC Night Information, 20/20 and The View.
Inside Walters’ six many years of reporting expertise, she has interviewed the likes of Nixon, Fidel Castro, Christopher Reeve and Monica Lewinsky, the latter of which noticed a record-breaking 74 million viewers tune in.
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Lewinsky, the previous White Home intern who notably had an affair with Invoice Clinton whereas he was the President of america, sat down with Walters in 1999 to debate her aspect of the story.
“I knew Barbara for over half of my life. We met within the spring of 1998, within the midst of the Starr investigation; I used to be 24. I remarked that this was the primary time I’d ever been in deep trouble,” the San Francisco native wrote through Twitter in December 2022, shortly after information broke of Walters’ loss of life. “I’d principally been an excellent child — received good grades, didn’t do medication, by no means shoplifted and so forth. With out lacking a beat, Barbara stated: ‘Monica, subsequent time shoplift.’”
She continued: “We stayed in contact over the previous 25 years. The final time we noticed one another was for lunch just a few years in the past. After all, she was charming, witty and a few of her questions had been nonetheless her signature interview fashion: ‘So inform me, Monica, how do you are feeling … and so forth and so forth.’ She was the very first individual with whom I ever sat for a tv interview … and will definitely be my most memorable. Barbara will likely be missed by many — together with me.”
Walters was additionally recognized for internet hosting an annual particular, titled Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating Individuals, the place she spoke with an array of public figures earlier than the top of the calendar yr.
Scroll beneath to revisit the late journalistic icon’s memorable interviews via the years:
Credit score: Ray Stubblebine/AP/Shutterstock
Richard Nixon
Walters spoke with the previous president, who died in 1994, a number of occasions all through his political profession. Throughout a reside interview in 1980, Nixon opened as much as Walters about his half within the Watergate scandal.
Credit score: Al/AP/Shutterstock
Jimmy Carter
Walters journeyed to Carter and spouse Rosalynn Carter’s Georgia dwelling in 1976 months earlier than his presidential inauguration. “I pray that I will not disappoint the American individuals,” Jimmy stated through the sit-down.
Credit score: David Bookstaver/AP/Shutterstock
Gerald Ford
Ford and his spouse, Betty Ford, gave Walters a tour of the White Home throughout a 1976 televised farewell earlier than leaving workplace.
Credit score: Max Nash/AP/Shutterstock
Shimon Peres
The At the moment alum lead Peres, the previous head of Israel’s Labor Occasion, to their seats hand-in-hand earlier than the interview commenced.
Credit score: Mikhail Metzel/AP/Shutterstock
Vladimir Putin
Walters was the primary American journalist to interview the Russian president after the September 11, 2001, terrorist assaults. The 20/20 particular aired the next November.
Credit score: AP/Shutterstock
Yitzhak Rabin
She spoke with the Israeli prime minister in 1974.
Credit score: AP/Shutterstock
Edward Kennedy
Walters interviewed Kennedy in 1970 on the second anniversary of his brother President John F. Kennedy’s loss of life.
Credit score: AP/Shutterstock
Fidel Castro
Walters was one of many reporters who accompanied Senator George McGovern on a 1975 journey to Cuba, the place she first met Castro. After two years of following up about an interview alternative, they sat down in Could 1977.
Credit score: AP/Shutterstock
Jack Kevorkian
The late TV anchor’s 1992 dialogue with Kevorkian (a.okay.a. “Dr. Demise”) was controversial, as he spoke about physician-assisted suicide.
Credit score: AP/Shutterstock
Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Walters spoke with the previous Iranian sovereign in 1977, marking the primary time he and spouse Farah Pahlavi had been interviewed collectively.
Credit score: Harry Koundakjian/AP/Shutterstock
Yasser Arafat
She interviewed the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Group in 1977.
Credit score: VIRGINIA SHERWOOD / UPI Photograph Service/Newscom/The Mega Company
Monica Lewinsky
Lewinsky gave her first televised interview in regards to the Clinton scandal to Walters in March 1999. “Typically I’ve heat emotions, typically I am happy with [Clinton] nonetheless, and typically I hate his guts. And, um, he makes me sick,” the activist informed Walters on the time.
Credit score: UPI/Newscom/MEGA
Christopher Reeve
Walters conversed with the actor in September 2002, who died two years after the 20/20 particular aired.
Credit score: ABC
Katharine Hepburn
“Katharine Hepburn was speaking about seeing issues in black and white. That is what so many individuals respect about her — that she’s so particular,” Walters mirrored on her 1991 interview with the Oscar winner within the January 2002 problem of Esquire. “I had simply come again from the Center East, interviewing Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat. I informed her that and stated, ‘Ms. Hepburn, I do not see issues in black and white fairly often. I see issues in shades of grey.’ And he or she stated, ‘Nicely, I pity you.’”
Credit score: ABC
Ellen DeGeneres
“Can I say that I really like you whether or not you ever learn my e-book or not. You’ve at all times been so good to me. I feel you’re so cute,” Walters gushed throughout a 2008 look on The Ellen DeGeneres Present, practically three years after she interviewed the Discovering Dory star about her coming-out journey.
Credit score: ABC
Barbra Streisand
Walters spoke with Streisand through the first version of her The Barbara Walters Specials, which aired in 1976.
“The plan was to do a combination of political leaders and Hollywood celebrities,” Walters later mirrored on the particular in 1989. “The phrases of the cautious nonetheless ring in my ears: ‘These stars won’t ever sit down for an interview,’ they stated, ‘And so they actually will not allow you to enter their houses. They’ll by no means discuss to you, interval.’ However one did. Barbra Streisand. Every little thing I would ever heard about her was true. The final word skilled, she fearful about the whole lot—each query I requested, each phrase she uttered, each be aware. However she is such a expertise, and at coronary heart so weak, that I might forgive her something. It was our first glimpse on the flipside of stardom.”
Credit score: ABC
Taylor Swift
Swift was named one in every of Walter’s “Most Fascinating Individuals” in 2014, the place the “Anti-Hero” singer opened up about her relationship with followers, switching to pop music from nation and her famed good-girl status.
