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L.A. Broadcast Legend Dies KCAL's Jerry Dunphy Was 80
-The Dunphy Family
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(LOS
ANGELES) May 21, 2002 9:10 am US/Pacific. Veteran television news
anchor Jerry Dunphy has died at the age of 80. Dunphy, a well-respected anchor and one of the most recognized faces in Los Angeles television news, suffered an acute heart attack last week and collapsed outside his Wilshire Boulevard condominium. He had been hospitalized since. Dunphy anchored two weekday KCAL broadcasts as recently as last week. Channel 9 broke the news last night, with colleague Pat Harvey tearfully telling viewers that Dunphy, a fixture in broadcast news for more than 40 years, had died. Dunphy's family issued a statement. "We are devastated by the loss of our dear father Jerry Dunphy. To us, he was our beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather. To the people of Southern California, he served as a constant beacon of truth and guidance in our ever-changing world. "We ask you to share in our celebration of an American life well lived, with the peace of knowing he is now with God. From the desert to the sea to all of eternity, we bid our father a fond farewell." Dunphy, at KCAL for the past dozen years, was known by his signature greeting: "From the desert to the sea to all of Southern California, a good evening." Funeral plans are pending for Dunphy, who also suffered heart attacks in 1978 and 1991 and underwent triple heart bypass surgery more than 20 years ago. Dunphy has been in the anchorman's chair on an almost daily basis in Los Angeles since 1960, when he started with KNXT-TV and enjoyed wide success on its groundbreaking "Big News" broadcast. The white-haired Dunphy, one of the highest paid readers on local TV news, reputedly was the model for the Ted Baxter character in the old "Mary Tyler Moore Show." The anchorman on the animated television series "The Simpsons" also appeared to be have been modeled after him. In addition to his stints on Channels 2, 7 and 9, Dunphy had appeared in a dozen movies, most recently "Bulworth" in 1998, and in numerous TV shows. He spent 15 years with KNXT, later KCBS-TV, before moving on to KABC-TV in 1975. He remained there for 14 years, until joining KCAL-TV in July 1989, a few months before the new Disney-owned, stand-alone with the just-minted call letters -- it had been KHJ -- went on the air. The station later was sold to Young Broadcasting, which last week closed the sale of KCAL to media giant Viacom Inc. In 1993, Dunphy was presented the Los Angeles Area Governors Emmy Award for long-time excellence in broadcasting. It would go alongside his considerable collection of other local Emmys and Golden Mikes, and other accolades he had gathered over the decades, including the Joseph M. Quinn Memorial Award from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club. At various times in his career, he had been a newsmaker himself, including in 1983 when at the age of 61 he was shot during a foiled robbery attempt, while stopped at an intersection in his Rolls-Royce. He had eaten dinner and was on his way back to the studio with Channel 7 makeup artist Sandra Marshall, who also was wounded, for an 11 p.m. newscast when they were accosted by a carload of suspects. Only one of the three people brought to trial was convicted, an outcome that disgusted Dunphy and Marshall, who later married, had a daughter, lived together several years and divorced. A Milwaukee native, Dunphy grew up in the Midwest and earned his journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin. He went on to Northwestern University, where he did graduate work. His TV career began in 1953. He was the first newsman to interview disgraced President Richard M. Nixon following the Watergate scandal. Over the years he would interview three other chief executives, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Jerry Ford, and presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey. He reported from NATO bases in Europe, and from datelines in Israel, Lebanon and Kuwait before the "Six Day War" in the Middle East in 1967. He had spent six weeks in Vietnam the year before, producing daily reports and an Emmy-winning special. He also went to Hawaii in 1991 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. |
"We
are devastated by the loss of our dear father Jerry Dunphy. To us, he was our
beloved father, grandfather, and great grandfather. To the people of Southern
California, he served as a constant beacon of truth and guidance in our ever
changing world. We ask you to share in our celebration of an American life well
lived, with the peace of knowing he is now with God. From the desert to the sea
to all eternity, we bid our Father a fond farewell."