Legendary Talk Show Host Phil Donahue Dies at 88

The iconic television talk show host Phil Donahue, who was the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show (later known simply as Donahue), has died. He was 88.

As reported by Today, Donahue’s family confirmed the star passed away peacefully on Sunday night (August 18) following a long illness. He was said to have died at home surrounded by his family, “including his wife of 44 years, Marlo Thomas, his sister, his children, grandchildren, and his beloved golden retriever, Charlie.”

Donahue’s family requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Phil Donahue/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund.

Born on December 21, 1935, in Cleveland, Ohio, Donahue began his broadcasting career in 1957 as a production assistant at KYW radio and television based in Cleveland. After graduating, he became program director for WABJ radio in Adrian, Michigan, before moving on to become a stringer for the CBS Evening News and, later, an anchor of the morning newscast at WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio.

During his time at WHIO-TV, Donahue hosted Conversation Piece, an afternoon phone-in talk show from 1963 to 1967, where he interviewed the likes of John F. Kennedy, Johnny Carson, and Malcolm X. His other famous interviews from around this time include Elton John, Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier, and political activist Noam Chomsky.

Everett Collection

Donahue left WHIO in November 1967, where his talk program, The Phil Donahue Show, moved to WLWD (also in Dayton), entering nationwide syndication in January 1970. The show moved from Dayton to Chicago in 1974 and then to New York City in 1984.

The popular talk show ran for 29 years, 26 of them in syndication, with the final original episode airing on September 13, 1996. During the show’s run, Donahue also served as a contributor on NBC’s The Today Show.

Donahue won 20 Emmy Awards for his talk show, 10 for Outstanding Host and another 10 for the show itself. The show, which often tackled single-topic issues, such as abortion, child abuse in the Catholic Church, feminism, and civil rights, influenced future daytime hosts such as Oprah Winfrey, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Ricki Lake, Montel Williams, and more.

“If there had been no Phil Donahue show, there would be no Oprah Winfrey Show,” Winfrey wrote in the September 2002 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, per People. “He was the first to acknowledge that women are interested in more than mascara tips and cake recipes — that we’re intelligent, we’re concerned about the world around us and we want the best possible lives for ourselves.”

Related

John Aprea Dead: ‘Another World’ & ‘Full House’ Star Was 83

A short-lived revival of Donahue aired on primetime in 2002; however, per the New York Times, MSNBC canceled the show in February 2003 due to low viewership.

In 2006, Donahue served as co-director with filmmaker Ellen Spiro for the feature documentary film Body of War, which tells the story of Tomas Young, a severely disabled Iraq War veteran and his turbulent postwar adjustments.

Donahue is a well-decorated star, receiving the Peabody Award in 1980 and being inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame on November 20, 1993. In 2024, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.

He is survived by his wife, actress Marlo Thomas, and four children — Michael, Kevin, Daniel and Mary Rose — from his first marriage. He is predeceased by his son, James “Jim” Patrick, who died in 2014 of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 51.