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| File - Former US President Richard M. Nixon, right, with broadcaster David Frost in California in this 1977 file photo. Sir David Frost has died at the age of 74 his family said in a statement Sunday Sept. 1 2013. |
LONDON (AP)
-- David Frost had sparred with Richard Nixon for hours, recording a
series of interviews with the former president three years after he
stepped down in disgrace over Watergate. But as the sessions drew to a
close, Frost realized he still lacked something: an acknowledgement by
Nixon that he had been wrong.
Nixon had
admitted making mistakes, but Frost put down his clipboard and pressed
his subject on whether that was enough. Americans, he said, wanted to
hear him own up to his misdeeds and acknowledge abusing the power of the
White House.
"Unless you say it, you're going to be haunted for the rest of your life," the British broadcaster told Nixon.
What
came next were some of the most extraordinary comments ever made by a
politician on television. For Frost, who died Saturday, it was the
signature moment of an illustrious television career that spanned half a
century and included interviews with a long list of the world's most
powerful and famous, including virtually every British prime minister
and U.S. president of his time.
A natural at
TV hosting, he seemed to effortlessly inhabit the worlds of
entertainment and politics. As a satirist, a game show host and a
journalist, he disarmed others with unfailing affability and personal
charm.
"He had an extraordinary ability to
draw out the interviewee, knew exactly where the real story lay and how
to get at it," former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. Frost, he
added, "was also a thoroughly kind and good-natured man."
Blair's
former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, added on Twitter that
Frost was one of the best interviewers "because his sheer niceness could
lull you into saying things you didn't intend."
Frost,
74, died of a heart attack Saturday night aboard the Queen Elizabeth
cruise ship, where he was due to give a speech, his family said in a
statement sent to the BBC. The cruise company Cunard said its vessel
left the English port of Southampton on Saturday for a 10-day cruise in
the Mediterranean.
Prime Minister David
Cameron, one of the first public figures to send condolences, called
Frost "both a friend and a fearsome interviewer." BBC executives lauded
him as "a titan of broadcasting" - both for beginning a tradition of
satirizing politics and for establishing a more confrontational
interview style.
Frost began his career almost
fresh out of college as the host of an early 1960s BBC satirical news
show "That Was The Week That Was," then a pioneering program that
ruthlessly lampooned politicians. The show gained a wide following, and
Frost's signature greeting, "Hello, good evening and welcome," was often
mimicked.
Frost was popular in Britain and
was gaining a foothold on U.S. television, but it wasn't until 1977,
when he secured the interviews with Nixon, that he became
internationally known.
The interviews were
groundbreaking for both Frost and the ex-president, who was trying to
salvage his reputation. At the time, they were the most widely watched
news interviews in TV history.
"That was
totally off-the-cuff," Frost later said of his question that prompted
Nixon's contrite comments.
"That was totally ad-lib. In fact, I threw my
clipboard down just to indicate that it was not prepared in any way.
... I just knew at that moment that Richard Nixon was more vulnerable
than he'd ever be in his life. And I knew I had to get it right."
In the end, Nixon relented.
"I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life," he said.
The
face-off went on to spawn a hit play and in 2008, a new generation was
introduced to Frost's work with the Oscar-nominated movie "Frost/Nixon,"
starring Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon.
Frost was born on April 7, 1939, in Kent, England, the son of a Methodist preacher.
The
young Frost began television hosting while still a student at Cambridge
University, and soon after graduation he was approached by a BBC
producer to front "That Was The Week That Was."
He
went on to host a sketch show called "The Frost Report" and became a
regular figure on U.S. television. Behind the camera, Frost also
co-founded two television companies, London Weekend Television and
TV-am, churning out a prolific schedule of programs.
Over
the years, his interviewees included a wide-ranging roster of
politicians, from Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev to Pakistan's Benazir
Bhutto, as well as leading entertainment figures such as Orson Welles
and the Beatles.
He was the only person to
have interviewed the last eight British prime ministers and the seven
U.S. presidents in office from 1969 to 2008. Besides the Nixon
interviews, one of the more memorable moments included a tense interview
with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher over the sinking of the Argentine
warship during the war in the Falklands.
In
later years, Frost kept up his probing questioning of political leaders,
although some came to criticize him for being "too nice" to his
subjects. Somewhat incongruously, he also hosted a game show called
"Through the Keyhole" that spied on the homes of celebrities from 1987
to 2008.
"His sense of humor shone through
everything he did," Richard Brock, a producer who worked with Frost at
Al-Jazeera, told the broadcaster. "He wasn't all heavyweight, political
interviews. He really got a kick out of some of the lighter stuff."
Frost,
who wrote about a dozen books, won numerous awards and was knighted in
1993. Most recently he was hosting programs for Al-Jazeera English,
where he had worked since its launch several years ago.
He is survived by his wife, Carina, and their three sons.
