Legendary CBS Broadcaster Mike Wallace Has Died At Age 93

Mike Wallace, one of the original faces on CBS’ 60 Minutes back when the program began in the 1960s, died today at the age of 93. The news was tweeted by New York Times media writer Brian Stelter and immediately confirmed on the CBS News website.

CBS features a lengthy piece remembering Wallace on the site by his former colleague Morley Safer, looking at the highlights of his career on the network.

But it was an interview show called “Nightbeat,” first broadcast in 1956, that Wallace remembered fit him like custom-made brass knuckles. “We decided to ask the irreverent question, the abrasive question, the who-gives-a-damn question.”

Some, like labor leader Mike Quill, had never been spoken to that way. “Go ahead and ask your stupid questions,” he retorted.

Neither had mobster Mickey Cohen, whom Wallace asked, “How many men have you killed, Mickey?”

So when “60 Minutes” was born in 1968, Wallace brought with him his “Nightbeat” persona, and contributed 40 years’ worth of nosiness, impertinence, and, of course, drama.

Watch the report from CBS below:

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