U.S. television personality Mike Douglas, whose eponymous afternoon talk show ran for more than two decades, has died in Florida.
Mike Douglas, who drew on his affable personality and singing talent during 21 years as a talk show host, died Friday. (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press) Douglas died at a Palm Beach County hospital on Friday, his 81st birthday, according to his wife Genevieve Douglas. She said he was admitted on Thursday after being sick for the past few weeks since becoming dehydrated while playing golf.
"He was coming along fine, we thought. It was really a shock," she said. "We never anticipated this to happen."
The Mike Douglas Show aired from 1961 to 1982 and featured the Chicago-born former big band singer and celebrity co-hosts chatting with guests from the worlds of music, entertainment, comedy, politics and sports.
Famous co-hosts included John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and guests ranged from Truman Capote to Malcolm X to Judy Garland to Muhammad Ali.
Their discussions were interspersed with musical performances. Over the years, acts as diverse as Ray Charles, KISS, Barbra Streisand and the Rolling Stones took the stage.
Douglas wrote in his 1999 memoir that he didn't really consider his long-running program a talk show.
"It was really a music show, with a whole lot of talk and laughter in between numbers," he wrote in I'll Be Right Back: Memories of TV's Greatest Talk Show.
The program also featured what is considered the first-ever television appearance by golf great Tiger Woods, who appeared on the program in 1978 as a preschool golf prodigy.
"I don't know what kind of drugs they've got this kid on … but I want some," quipped avid golfer Bob Hope, who was a guest on the same episode.
Teen singer
Born Michael Delaney Dowd in Chicago in 1925, Douglas sang for radio programs and supper clubs as a teen. After a brief stint with the U.S. navy toward the end of the Second World War, he became a vocalist under big band leader Kay Kyser, who convinced him to adopt the stage name Mike Douglas.
Douglas had a few hits with Kyser in the 1940s, but as rock 'n' roll songs began to take over the charts, he turned his talents to television as a means to re-energize his career.
The affable Douglas rose to fame during the same period as talk show colleagues Merv Griffin, Phil Donahue and Dinah Shore. The show won multiple Emmy Award nominations over the years and, at its height, The Mike Douglas Show drew millions of viewers each day.
Tom Kelly, who co-authored Douglas's memoir, attributed a large part of the host's success to keeping his "ego in check."
"He always let the guest have the limelight. He was a fine performer. He could sing, he could do comedy, he did it all, but he always gave the guest the spotlight."
With files from the Associated Press.