{"id":119433,"date":"2024-08-19T13:45:53","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/19\/phil-donahues-cause-of-death-television-icon-dead-at-88\/"},"modified":"2024-08-19T13:45:53","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T13:45:53","slug":"phil-donahues-cause-of-death-television-icon-dead-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/19\/phil-donahues-cause-of-death-television-icon-dead-at-88\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Donahue\u2019s Cause Of Death: Television Icon Dead at 88"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Another great has been lost: Phil Donahue, daytime TV icon who paved the way for many who came after him, has passed away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For many 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s babies, Phil was a big part of the TV life, and his death is truly a heartbreak.<\/p>\n<p>His family shared the news on <em>The Today Show <\/em>on August 19th, along with the cause of his passing at 88.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He leaves quite the legacy behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><noscript><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"681\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153-681x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Donahue before his death\" class=\"wp-image-507393 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153-768x1155.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153-638x960.jpg 638w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153-718x1080.jpg 718w, https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153.jpg 798w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) calc(100vw - 20px), 720px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1150422153.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Phil Donahue attends the American Icon Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on May 19, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. <span class=\"image-caption-credit\"> (Photo by Allen Berezovsky\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"h-phil-donahue-s-cause-of-death-long-illness-took-the-talk-show-host\"><strong>Phil Donahue\u2019s Cause Of Death: Long Illness Took The Talk Show Host<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The legendary TV talk show host died on Sunday\u00a0 August 18th, after battling a long illness.<\/p>\n<p>While they didn\u2019t provide further details on his health battle, it sounds like his passing was expected, as was able to pass away \u201cpeacefully\u201d at home surrounded by his family.<\/p>\n<p>This included his wife of 44 years, Marlo Thomas, as well as his sister, children and grandchildren. His beloved golden retriever, Charlie, was also by his side, his family shared in a statement to the Today Show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While his family is touched by the outpouring of support, they also asked in their statement that\u00a0 donations be made to St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital or the Phil Donahue\/Notre Dame Scholarship Fund in lieu of flowers.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-phil-donahue-s-legacy-on-tv\"><strong>Phil Donahue\u2019s Legacy On TV<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps Phil\u2019s name doesn\u2019t ring any bells for you. But if the names Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Springer, and Sarah Jesse Raphael do, than you have Phil to thank for the careers they had.<\/p>\n<p>It was Phil, a radio journalist turned TV personality, the pioneered the first talk show to include audience participation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Phil Donahue Show\u201d was picked up for national syndication in 1969, was redubbed \u201cDonahue\u201d in 1974 and eventually reached more than 200 stations across the country. It ran until 1996, when the daytime talkshow landscape dramatically changed, leaning more towards tabloid antics and more female viewership (enter Oprah).<\/p>\n<p>But Phil was a trailblazer in many ways, covering stories that were both controversial yet accessible.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His first guest was Madalyn Murray O\u2019Hair, the atheist whose case against school prayer had been successfully argued in front of the Supreme Court; later, he was the only talk show host to land South Africa\u2019s Nelson Mandela right after his release from prison.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing was off limits at a time where everything seemed to be a taboo: premarital sex, homosexuality, AIDs, and even the Ku Klux Kan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In all, Donahue received nine Daytime Emmys and 21 nominations as well as a primetime Emmy for his special \u201cDonahue and Kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the news was announced of his passing, those who idolized him in the TV community began to pay their respects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the true trail-blazing icons of American television,\u201d wrote Piers Morgan on <em><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/piersmorgan\/status\/1825527973488837024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">X<\/a><\/em>. \u201cHe hosted over 6,000 talk shows, and was the first to interact with a studio audience. Interviewing him for CNN a few years ago lived up to every expectation.. such a clever, interesting man.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2024\/08\/phil-donahue-cause-of-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another great has been lost: Phil Donahue, daytime TV icon who paved the way for many who came after him, has passed away.\u00a0 For many 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s babies, Phil was a big part of the TV life, and his death is truly a heartbreak. His family shared the news on The Today Show on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-119433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hollywood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}