CBS' iconic newsman Mike Wallace dies at 93

(CBS/AP) - CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the "60 Minutes" pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview, died last night. He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years.

"All of us at CBS News and particularly at '60 Minutes' owe so much to Mike. Without him and his iconic style, there probably wouldn't be a '60 Minutes,' said Jeff Fager, chairman CBS News and executive producer of "60 Minutes."

Email "60 Minutes" your memories of Mike Wallace

As the journalism world reacted to the iconic newsman's passing, the AP's David Bauder noted the "60 Minutes" journalist's reputation as a pitiless inquisitor was so fearsome that the words "Mike Wallace is here to see you" were the most dreaded words in the English language; capable of reducing an interview subject to a shaking, sweating mess.

Watch: Mike Wallace's toughest interviews

"Wallace didn't just interview people," wrote Bauder on Sunday. "He interrogated them. He cross-examined them. Sometimes he eviscerated them. His weapons were many: thorough research, a cocked eyebrow, a skeptical "Come on" and a question so direct sometimes it took your breath away."

"He loved it," Fager said Sunday. "He loved that part of Mike Wallace. He loved being Mike Wallace. He loved the fact that if he showed up for an interview, it made people nervous. ... He knew, and he knew that everybody else knew, that he was going to get to the truth. And that's what motivated him."

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"It is with tremendous sadness that we mark the passing of Mike Wallace. His extraordinary contribution as a broadcaster is immeasurable and he has been a force within the television industry throughout its existence. His loss will be felt by all of us at CBS," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO, CBS Corporation.

A special program dedicated to Wallace will be broadcast on "60 Minutes" next Sunday, April 15.

Wallace made "60 Minutes" compulsively watchable, television's first newsmagazine that became appointment viewing on Sunday nights. His last interview, in January 2008, was with Roger Clemens on his alleged steroid use. Slowed by a triple bypass later that month and the ravages of time, he retired from public life.

Mike Wallace, interview the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

/ CBS

During the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, he asked Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini — then a feared figure — what he thought about being called "a lunatic" by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Khomeini answered by predicting Sadat's assassination.

Late in his career, he interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin, and challenged him: "This isn't a real democracy, come on!" Putin's aides tried to halt the interview; Putin said he was the president, he'll decide what to do.

Wallace's late colleague Harry Reasoner once said, "There is one thing that Mike can do better than anybody else: With an angelic smile, he can ask a question that would get anyone else smashed in the face."

60 Minutes Overtime

A look back at some memorable Mike Wallace reports »

Wallace played a huge role in "60 Minutes"' rise to the top of the ratings to become the number-one program of all time, with an unprecedented 23 seasons on the Nielsen annual top 10 list - five as the number-one program.

He announced he would step down to become a "correspondent emeritus" in the spring of 2006, but Wallace continued to land big interviews for "60 Minutes." His last appearance on television, on January 6, 2008, was a sit-down on "60 Minutes" with accused steroid user Roger Clemens that made front-page news. His August 2006 interview of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won him his 21st Emmy at the age of 89. He was also granted the first post-prison interview with assisted suicide advocate and convicted killer Dr. Jack Kevorkian for a June 2007 "60 Minutes" broadcast. After a successful triple bypass operation in late January 2008, he retired from public life.

Decades before his "60 Minutes" success, Wallace was already known to millions. In the early days of broadcasting, with no line between news and entertainment, Wallace did both. In the 1940s and '50s, he appeared on a variety of radio and television programs, first as narrator/announcer, then as a reporter, actor and program host.

On his first network television news program, ABC's "The Mike Wallace Interview," he perfected his interviewing style that he first tried on a local New York television guest show called "Night Beat." Created with producer Ted Yates, "Night Beat" became an instant hit that New Yorkers began referring to as "brow beat." Wallace's relentless questioning of his subjects proved to be a compelling alternative to the polite chit-chat practiced by early television hosts.

Years later, CBS News producer Don Hewitt remembered that hard-charging style when creating his pioneering news magazine, "60 Minutes"; he picked Wallace to be a counterweight to the avuncular Harry Reasoner. On September 24, 1968, Wallace and Reasoner introduced "60 Minutes" to the 10:00 p.m. timeslot, where it ran every other Tuesday. It failed to draw large audiences. But critics praised it, awards followed, and after seven years on various nights, "60 Minutes" went to 7:00 p.m. Sunday and began its rise.

30 Photos

Remembering Mike Wallace, 1918-2012

It made the top 20 in 1977 and the top 10 in 1978, then became the number-one program in 1980 - all with a tough-talking Wallace center stage.

The rising interest in Wallace and "60 Minutes" grew partly out of the Watergate scandal. Wallace's interrogations of John Erlichman, G. Gordon Liddy and H.R. Haldeman whetted the appetites of news junkies who continued to tune in to see Wallace joust with other scoundrels. Before long, he was a household name. In 1983, Coors beer took ads out in major newspapers after Wallace's "60 Minutes" investigation found little truth to rumors the company was racist. "The Four Most Dreaded Words in the English Language: Mike Wallace is Here," ran atop ads boasting that the firm had passed muster with the "grand inquisitor" himself.

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[Montana5]

If asking tough, difficult questions is the measure of the man, I'll take Alex Trebek over Mike Wallace.....and he's asking them five nights a week.

[BiasedMediaHarmsAmerica]

Mike Wallace, Dan Rather, and CBS did more to destroy objectivity in the American media than anyone else. Their agenda-driven stories and interviews helped breed a generation of reporters and editors whose main goal is to manipulate the public toward their own ideology. Mike Wallace may have had a lucrative career, but he helped plant the seeds that will one day take own our Democracy and our way of life.

[sandy 1027]

Mike Wallace was missed even before his passing.One of the reasons that we have so many politicians,political crackpots, ( and those who aid them); is because there are few , if any, Mike Wallaces left.The media( television, radio, the internet)is filled with people who either go on news programs that are supposed to be purveyors of the truth, informative to the public, and either does , what amounts to, an infomercial for 10 or 15 minutes; or they have a back -and-forth exchange with someone of an opposing view, and the host/journalist just looks like the timekeeper or referee, with an " I'm just here to make sure that we all be fair, and play nice. May the best man or woman win" stance, almost regardless of what is said- however wrong, however ridiculous- because too much of the mainstream media has allowed itself to be intimidated by the oldies-but-goodies charge of "bias".I am fiftyish; and have never seen a time in my life when when so many lies and distortions are put out for public consumption, taken as the gospel; and they go without being debunked by mainstream journalists .We are a country that not only can't handle the truth: we don't even know what it is anymore; and much of this is due to the fact that the Mike Wallaces and Tim Russerts either don't exist anymore, or they've abdicated, and are in hiding.

[KansasCity-2012]

Mike Wallace and Tim Russert were two iconic mind-opening professional that will be missed!

[abcrichards]

Mike Wallace was a moderate Democrat. I loved his show. As a former democrat, I wish
there were more like him. He was not a liberal !

[credibility2]

Mike Wallace will be missed. He was an incredible newsman. My condolences to his family, especially his son Chris, his colleagues, and all those he touched with his truthful way of getting at the truth. God bless him.

[troglobyte]

An Icon.

If Mike Wallace showed up at your door you had some 'splainin' to do.

We need more journalists like him, who do not conform to the cookie cutter mold and are not afraid of intimidation.

As a side note: don't confuse 'the right wing' with "buffalo wings" as is evident here. "Never argue with an idiot."

[olyboy]

Mike Wallace's biggest problem was his ego and his willingness to allow his emotions to rule rather than reality. He would, by asking the "are you still beating your wife?" questions, convicting the interviewee before the facts could be determined. Those who loved his style were those who elected emotion over fact. That said, his passing is not something to celebrate, his long life is.

[nancy_naive]

I believe his creed was "Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable."

Thankfully, we had him. Now what?

[NewshoundBob]

I grew up with Mike Wallace. That is from the early days of watching CBS News and 60 minutes. I learned a lot by his reporting and interviews. My grandfather taught me that you have to look at things from all sides, they are not always what they appeared to be. Mr. Wallace provided great information and for that I thank him.