Donald Newton Rickles (October 7, 1927 – February 19, 1985) was an American radio and television announcer, news anchor, and actor.

Early life

He was born Donald Newton Rickles in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

on October 7, 1927.

Career

Rickles began his announcing career at the age of 11 at

KBPS (AM) KBPS (1450 AM) is a high school radio station in Portland, Oregon, owned by Portland Public Schools, and run by Benson Polytechnic High School students enrolled in its radio broadcasting program. From its founding the station has been based on ...

in Portland. Later, he was chief announcer for

KUSC-FM KUSC (91.5 FM) is a listener-supported classical music radio station broadcasting from downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. KUSC is owned and operated by the University of Southern California, which also operates student-run Internet ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Other stations where he worked early in his career included KGW and KEX in Portland and KVAN in

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

. In 1949, he became an announcer at KIEV in Los Angeles, and a year later, joined the announcing staff of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

in Hollywood. He was part of a core group of West Coast announcers for the network who, in his early years, included Don Stanley, Arch Presby, Eddy King, and Frank Barton; by the 1970s, the main core announcing lineup had become Rickles, Stanley,

Victor Bozeman Victor Emanuel Bozeman (August 11, 1929 in McLennan County, Texas – November 26, 1986 in Los Angeles, California) was an American television announcer, voice-over artist, and actor. In the 1950s, Bozeman was a disc jockey at WLIB in New York Ci ...

, and

Peggy Taylor Peggy Taylor (born Margaret Tague, October 12, 1927 – February 9, 2002) was an American singer and actress who later became a radio and television announcer. Early life On October 12, 1927, Taylor was born as Margaret Tague in Inglewood, Ca ...

. Rickles' radio announcing credits included ''

The Whisperer ''The Whisperer'' was an American old-time radio radio programming, program which broadcast 13 episodes on late Sunday afternoons :00 p.m. Easternas a summer replacement from July 8 to September 30, 1951 on NBC. It was based on stories ...

'', ''

The Great Gildersleeve ''The Great Gildersleeve'' is a radio situation comedy broadcast in the United States from August 31, 1941 to 1958. Initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, it was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. The series was built a ...

'', '' Night Beat'', and '' NBC University Theater''. On television, over the next three decades, he handled announcing duties for such programs as ''

Coke Time with Eddie Fisher ''Coke Time with Eddie Fisher'' is an American musical variety television series starring singer Eddie Fisher which was broadcast by NBC on Wednesday and Friday nights from 7:30 to 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays and Fridays, from Apri ...

'', '' The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show'', ''

The Dean Martin Show ''The Dean Martin Show'', not to be confused with the ''Dean Martin Variety Show'' (1959–1960), is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by Dean Martin. The theme song to the ...

'', ''

The Flip Wilson Show ''The Flip Wilson Show'' is an hour-long variety show that originally aired in the US on NBC from September 17, 1970, to June 27, 1974. The show starred American comedian Flip Wilson; the program was one of the first American television programs ...

'', '' Sanford and Son'', ''

NBC Saturday Night at the Movies ''NBC Saturday Night at the Movies'' was the first TV show to broadcast in color relatively recent feature films from major studios. The series premiered on September 23, 1961, and ran until October 1978, spawning many imitators. Previously, tel ...

'', '' NBC Monday Night at the Movies'', and

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...

specials. He appeared in sketches on, and frequently did

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...

work for, ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

'', and in a memorable 1978 episode of ''

The Tomorrow Show ''The Tomorrow Show'' (also known as ''Tomorrow with Tom Snyder'' or ''Tomorrow'' and, after 1980, ''Tomorrow Coast to Coast'') is an American late-night television talk show hosted by Tom Snyder which aired on NBC in first run form from Octob ...

'', host

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...

and he spent 10 minutes playing the

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...

electronic game ''

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

''. He also handled live booth-announcing duties for the network's Los Angeles owned-and-operated station KNBC. He had also worked as a newscaster, at one point, anchoring KNBC's 11 pm newscast. In later years, after John Schubeck became anchor, Rickles was one of the rotating announcers for the station's ''NewsCenter 4'', and was thanked on the air by Schubeck at the start of each newscast. As part of his continuity duties, Rickles also anchored out-of-vision for sign-on and sign-off editions of ''NewsCenter4''.

Death

On February 19, 1985, Rickles died in Glendale, California of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

at age 57.

References

* Obituary in ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', February 27, 1985.

External links

Donald Rickles radio credits
(with some credits actually applicable to comedian Don Rickles)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rickles, Donald 1927 births 1985 deaths Male actors from Portland, Oregon American radio personalities American male voice actors Radio and television announcers NBC network announcers Television anchors from Los Angeles 20th-century American male actors