Peter Hackes (June 2, 1924 – April 17, 1994) was a longtime American TV and radio correspondent who late in life had acting roles in two prominent American films.
Early life and education
Born in New York City, Peter Sidney Hackes graduated from
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College.
Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...
and then earned a master's degree in journalism in 1949 from the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
, where he served as the city editor of the university’s
WSUI
WSUI (910 AM) is a public radio station in Iowa City, Iowa. It is operated by the University of Iowa and is a member of Iowa Public Radio's news network. Its signal serves most of eastern Iowa. WSUI is one of two National Public Radio membe ...
radio station.
He served in the Navy during World War II, and retired as a captain from the naval reserves in the mid-1980s.
Broadcasting career
Early in his career, Hackes worked for radio stations in Iowa, New York, Ohio and Kentucky.
He then began a three-year stint working at
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
in 1952.
Starting in 1955, Hackes spent 30 years based in
Washington, D.C.
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
working for
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 ...
, both as a TV correspondent and as a radio correspondent.
In his years at NBC, Hackes covered Capitol Hill, the State Department and
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
, and worked every national political convention from 1956 to 1986.
Hackes won an
Emmy award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for his coverage of the
Apollo space flights in 1969 and 1970, and he also won a
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
for his work on NBC’s ''Second Sunday'' program.
Other stories that Hackes covered included the assassination of
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
, the funeral of President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
and the attempted assassination of President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
.
Hackes also helped to write, edit and produce stories each day on NBC’s syndicated “A-News” television program, which provided Washington stories to NBC’s 200 affiliated TV stations.
After voluntarily taking an early retirement from NBC in April 1986,
Hackes became the radio voice of the
AARP
AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is an interest group in the United States focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. The organization said it had more than 38 million members in 2018. The magazin ...
.
He hosted a daily radio program for retired Americans called ''Mature Focus'', which aired on 600 radio stations nationwide.
Hackes also consulted to the
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
and to the
U.S. Department of the Army
The United States Department of the Army (DA) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the U.S. The Department of the Army is the federal government agency within which the United States Army (U.S.) is o ...
regarding various information programs.
He also did voice-overs for corporate videotapes and moderated teleconferences for organizations like the
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...
.
Acting
After retiring from NBC, Hackes had acting roles in two prominent films. In 1987, Hackes played heartless network executive Paul Moore in the film ''
Broadcast News'', who oversaw an extensive layoff and restructuring of news personnel in a TV network’s Washington bureau.
"I went down to see if I could get a walk-on part (in the film), just for fun," Hackes told the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''. "It could be a one-picture career for me." Hackes told the ''Times'' that while no network news presidents praised or criticized his performance, NBC News president
Larry Grossman told him, "Now you know what we have to go through."
Hackes also had a small role in the 1991 film ''
True Colors''.
Personal life
Hackes was married twice. His marriage to his first wife, Mary Hackes, ended in divorce. He then married Jessie Hackes. He had a son, Peter Quinn Hackes, a stepdaughter, Jennifer Halpern, and two grandchildren.
Death
Hackes died on April 17, 1994 at
Georgetown University Hospital
MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...
, after suffering a heart attack.
Filmography
References
External links
Peter Hackesat
Find a Grave
Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hackes, Peter
1924 births
1994 deaths
NBC News people
American male journalists
20th-century American journalists
Grinnell College alumni
University of Iowa alumni
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery