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Walter Winchell was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes and Jazz Age slang. He found both hard news and embarrassing stories about famous people by exploiting his exceptionally wide circle of contacts, first in the entertainment world and the Prohibition era underworld, then in law enforcement and politics. He was known for trading gossip, sometimes in return for his silence. His outspoken style made him both feared and admired. Novels and movies were based on his wisecracking gossip columnist persona, as early as the play and film Blessed Event in 1932. As World War II approached, he attacked the appeasers of Nazism in the 1930s, and in the 1950s aligned with Joseph McCarthy in his campaign against communists. He damaged the reputations of Charles Lindbergh and Josephine Baker as well as other individuals who had earned his enmity. However, the McCarthy connection in time made him unfashionable, and his style did not adapt well to television news. He did return to television in 1959 as narrator of the Twenties crime drama series The Untouchables. Over the years he appeared in more than two dozen films and television productions as an actor, sometimes playing himself.
Birth Name
Walter Winchel
Born
Wednesday, 07 April 1897
Died
Sunday, 20 February 1972
Actor Filmography
Title | Character | Year |
---|
Lucy and Desi | Self | 2022 |
America's Book of Secrets | Self - Newspaper Columnist | 2012 |
Joe Louis: America's Hero... Betrayed | Walter Winchell | 2008 |
Broadway: The American Musical | Walter Winchell | 2004 |
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There | Self (archive material) | 2003 |
La Cosa Nostra: The History of the New York Mafia | Self | 2003 |
Winchell | Self | 1998 |
The Fifties | Walter Winchell | 1997 |
Contact | Self - Voice Through Space | 1997 |
Biography | Walter Winchell | 1987 |
Actor Filmography
Title | Character | Year |
---|
Lucy and Desi | Self | 2022 |
America's Book of Secrets | Self - Newspaper Columnist | 2012 |
Joe Louis: America's Hero... Betrayed | Walter Winchell | 2008 |
Broadway: The American Musical | Walter Winchell | 2004 |
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There | Self (archive material) | 2003 |
La Cosa Nostra: The History of the New York Mafia | Self | 2003 |
Winchell | Self | 1998 |
The Fifties | Walter Winchell | 1997 |
Contact | Self - Voice Through Space | 1997 |
Biography | Walter Winchell | 1987 |
American Masters | Walter Winchell / Self | 1986 |
CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley | Self (Almanac) (archive footage) | 1979 |
Brother Can You Spare a Dime | Walter Winchell / Self (archive footage) | 1975 |
Single Room Furnished | Walter Winchell | 1968 |
Wild in the Streets | Walter Winchell | 1968 |
The Movie Orgy | Self (archival footage) | 1968 |
Valentine's Day | Radio Announcer | 1964 |
The Lucy Show | Narrator | 1962 |
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | Himself - Guest | 1962 |
Wild Harvest | Narrator (voice) / Narrator | 1962 |
Dondi | Walter Winchell | 1961 |
College Confidential | Walter Winchell | 1960 |
The Bellboy | Narrator | 1960 |
John Gunther's High Road | Self - Narrator | 1959 |
The Scarface Mob | Narration | 1959 |
The Untouchables | Narrator | 1959 |
The Kraft Music Hall | Walter Winchell | 1958 |
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse | Narrator | 1958 |
The Walter Winchell File | Walter Winchell / 'Two Gun' Crowley / Host | 1957 |
The Helen Morgan Story | Walter Winchell / Himself | 1957 |
Beau James | Narrator | 1957 |
A Face in the Crowd | Self | 1957 |
The Walter Winchell Show | Self - Host / Walter Winchell | 1956 |
Telephone Time | Walter Winchell | 1956 |
There's No Business Like Show Business | Walter Winchell | 1954 |
The Joe Louis Story | Self | 1953 |
This Is Your Life | Self | 1952 |
What's My Line? | Himself - Mystery Guest | 1950 |
Sorrowful Jones | Walter Winchell | 1949 |
Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall | Himself | 1948 |
The Ed Sullivan Show | Self - Audience Bow | 1948 |
Daisy Kenyon | Walter Winchell / himself | 1947 |
The Great American Broadcast | Self - Opening Montage | 1941 |
Love and Hisses | Walter Winchell | 1937 |
Wake Up and Live | Walter Winchell | 1937 |
Broadway Highlights No. 1 | Walter Winchell | 1935 |
The Hollywood Gad-About | Walter Winchell | 1934 |
Broadway Thru a Keyhole | Walter Wenchell - Newscaster / Walter Winchell - Newscaster | 1933 |
I Know Everybody and Everybody's Racket | Self | 1933 |