Alistair Cooke(1908-2004)
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
British-born American journalist and broadcaster. Cooke was born in
Salford, Manchester: his father was an iron-fitter and Methodist
lay-preacher. He grew up in Blackpool where his parents ran a guest
house. Here he first came into contact with Americans, in the form of
GIs on their way to fight in World War One. He won a scholarship to
Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied English. A fellowship from
the Commonwealth Fund subsequently enabled him to study theatre at Yale
and Harvard for two years. In 1934 he got his first broadcasting job,
as a film critic for the BBC, but soon returned to the States and in
1941 became a US citizen. For a time he worked as a freelance
journalist for The Times, reporting from New York. Then in 1945 he
joined The Guardian as its US correspondent, a position he held until
1972. His first job was to cover the creation of the United Nations. In
March 1946 he began a radio programme for the BBC called "American
Letter". This was a series of 15-minute broadcasts in which he tried to
give an impression of life in America. Cooke was warned by the producer
that this would last no longer than 26 weeks: in the event, as "Letter
from America", it lasted for 58 years, becoming the world's
longest-running speech radio programme. Cooke made in total 2869
broadcasts, mostly from his 15th-floor flat on Fifth Avenue overlooking
Central Park. Memorable broadcasts included his eyewitness account of
the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. He also broadcast on American
TV, presenting "Omnibus" in the 1950s and from 1971 to 1993 presenting
British programmes to American viewers for PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre"
series. A much-respected figure on both sides of the Atlantic, he was
granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973, and
addressed Congress as part of the bicentennial celebrations. At the age
of 95, having been forced to miss a broadcast due to his increasing
ill-health, Cooke decided to end "Letter from America" (having in the
past made 16 broadcasts from a hospital bed). The last programme was
transmitted on 2nd March 2004 and he died less than a month
later.
