WALLACE, MIKE

WALLACE, MIKE (Myron Leon; 1918– ), U.S. television journalist. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, Wallace received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1939. He gained prominence in 1956 for his penetrating interviews on New York television. He wrote a column for the New York Post, "Mike Wallace Asks" (1957–58; published as a book under the same title in 1958), ran the radio series New Beat (1959–61), and worked as staff correspondent for CBS News (1963–64). He hosted several TV series, such as Night Beat (1956); The Mike Wallace Interview (1957–58); and Biography (1961–64). He was the anchor on the CBS Morning News from 1963 to 1966. From 1968 he was one of the main correspondents on the popular news magazine series 60 Minutes. In 1990 CBS News presented the one-hour special Mike Wallace Then and Now, which highlighted his 40 years of reporting and interviewing. Wallace also hosted the TV series 20th Century with Mike Wallace (1995) and appeared in such TV documentaries as The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception (1982); Watergate: The Secret Story (1992); The Real Malcolm X (1992); Hugh Hefner: Once upon a Time (1992); Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval (1995); Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (1997); Dead Blue: Surviving Depression (1998); Breaking the News (2001); and The 100 Most Memorable TV Moments (2004). Wallace interviewed kings, presidents, and prime ministers, dictators and divas, musicians and millionaires. Among his many honors and awards are 19 Emmy Awards, three Peabody Awards, and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. In 1989 he was honored by Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications for his lifetime contribution to radio and television. In 1991 he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame and was honored by the Radio/Television News Directors Association with the Paul White Award. In 1993 he was named Broadcaster of the Year by the International Radio and Television Society. In 2002 he received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. Wallace's published works include Close Encounters: Mike Wallace's Own Story (with G.P. Gates, 1985) and Between You and Me: A Memoir (with G.P. Gates, 2005). (Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)