Regis Philbin: The Widely popular game show, 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' was originally hosted by Philbin from the year 1999 to 2002. He was also part of other franchises, which include Million Dollar Password and the first season of America's Got Talent.
Regis Philbin dies aged 88 (Pic Credit - Chicago Sun Times)
Regis Philbin, the legendary TV host has passed away at the age of 88. His family members shared the sad news of his demise in an exclusive statement on Saturday. The statement released by his family read, “We are deeply sad and dejected to announce that our beloved ‘Regis Philbin’ passed away last night of natural cause, one night shy of his 89th birthday.”
The Philbin family said, “We the family and therefore friend are grateful forever to get an opportunity to spend the quality time with him, for his warmth, his legendary sense of humour, and his unique quality to make each day memorable and worthwhile. We especially thank his fans and admirers who incessantly supported him over the period of a 60-year career and we request privacy to mourn his loss.”
The Widely popular game show, ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ was originally hosted by Philbin from the year 1999 to 2002. He was also part of other franchises, which include Million Dollar Password and the first season of America’s Got Talent. Philbin was born on August 25, 1931, and was raised in the Bronx. He did his graduation from Cardinal Hayes High School in the year 1949, he also earned a degree in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame in 1953.
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Philbin after serving in the Navy began his career as a writer in show business and made his way in front of the camera in 1961 with a local talk show in San Diego called The Regis Philbin Show. In the year 1961, he became popularly known as Joey Bishop’s sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show. He moved to New York in the year 1983 after doing a number of local talk shows including A.M Los Angeles and Regis Philbin’s Saturday Night in St.Louis and started hosting The Morning Show, which was later named after three years as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee.
Philbin was honoured with Daytime Emmy Awards for outstanding talk show host for Live! in 2001 and 2011 was felicitated as an outstanding game show host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Philbin was also the recipient of Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 and Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2008.
During his career, Philbin was struggling with many health issues. He also went through angioplasty in 1993, which was followed by triple bypass surgery which occurred due to plaque in his arteries in March 2007. In the year 2009, he also got his hip replaced. Philip was married twice and survived by daughter Amy Philbin, whom he shared with his first wife Catherine Faylen, both have another child, son Daniel Philbin who died in the year 2014. He also had two daughters J.J Philbin and Joanna Philbin from his second wife Joy Philbin.
