David suskind biography

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Susskind's most significant interview by far was with Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev. Open End, a forum that sometimes lasted for hours, went on the air in 1958. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

He was a member of his United States military during World War II.

After completing his studies at Harvard as well as having graduated from Harvard and the University of Wisconsin, he quickly secured a job at Warner Brothers.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

David Susskind height Not available right now.

He was 66 years old.

Was Leonard Susskind a plumber?

Leonard Susskind was born to a Jewish family from the South Bronx in New York City. Described by his critics as "combative," "controversial," "blunt," and "endearingly narcissistic," Susskind once aspired to be "the Cecil B. DeMille of television." As a self-styled "iconoclast" and "rebel," Susskind cultivated a reputation as a television insider who was an outspoken critic of the medium and its mediocrity.

david suskind biography

As for television, in addition to serving as a producer on The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The duPont Show of the Week, and Kraft Television Theatre (among others), he was also the executive producer of Armstrong Circle Theater. The roster of people who accepted invitations to appear on his show includes Harry S. Truman, Richard M.

Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, Vietnam veterans, and even a ski-masked professional killer.

     Susskind continued to be intermittently involved as a producer of prestige programming, including Hedda Gabler (1961 ), The Price ( 1971 ), The Glass Menagerie (1973), and  Eleanor and  Franklin (1976).

It is ironic, yet somehow fitting, that the grand impre­sario who introduced millions of television viewers to Willy Loman would himself suffer the death of a trav­eling salesman. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University. 

Quick Facts

David Susskind Biography

NameDavid Susskind
BirthdayDec 19
Birth Year1920
Place Of BirthManhattan
Home TownNew York
Birth CountryUnited States
Birth SignSagittarius
SpouseJoyce Davidson , Phyllis Briskin
Children(s)Andrew Susskind, Samantha Maria Susskind, Diana Laptook, Pamela Susskind

David Susskind is one of the most popular and richest TV Show Host who was born on December 19, 1920 in Manhattan, New York, United States.

According to Susskind, "Ninety-five percent of the stuff shown on it [TV] is trash."

     Susskind's ability to get things done, his genius as a logistician, was honed in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Serving as a communications officer aboard an attack transport, Susskind saw action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Producer, Talk Show Host

David Susskind. He is also a Research Professor at King’s College London, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, and an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University.

His new book, Growth: A Reckoning (2024), was chosen by President Obama as one of his ‘Favourite Books of 2024’ and was a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2024.

In 1961, the show was cut to two hours and went into syndication; in 1967, the title was changed to The David Susskind Show. He actually went looking for his first job in his Navy uniform and quickly found a position as a press agent for Warner Brothers studios.

     It was as an agent, that most despised, parasitic, and necessary of show business professionals, that the behind-the-scenes Susskind would first encounter success.

Susskind died of a heart attack at the age of 66 in 1987.

  • 1947-58 Kraft Television Theatre

    1948-55 Philco Television Playhouse

    1953 Armstrong Circle Theater

    1952-55 Mr. Susskind called Ali a “simplistic fool” who ought to be jailed.

    Is David Susskind alive?

    February 22, 1987

    What happened to David Susskind?

    David Susskind, the television producer and one of the country’s earliest and best-known television talk-show hosts, was found dead , apparently of natural causes, yesterday afternoon in his hotel suite in midtown Manhattan.

    Began career as a press agent; founder with Alfred Levy, Talent Associates Ltd; hired by Music Corporation of America to produce Philco Television Playhouse; produced other early television programs; hosted own talk show for nearly 30 years; expanded production activities to Broadway and films; company purchased by Norton Simon, Inc., renamed Talent Associates-Norton Simon, for theatrical as well as film production, 1970; company sold to Time-Life Films, 1977.

    He began working as a plumber at the age of 16 , taking over from his father who had become ill. The new firm's first package sale was the Philco Television Playhouse, a live, one-hour drama series on which Susskind would later find his first job as producer, filling in for one of his clients, Fred Coe. After this heady experience, Susskind reinvented himself as a producer whose horizons extended far beyond the small screen, producing more than a dozen movies and more than half a dozen stage plays in his 40-year career.

    After a brief stint as a talent scout for Century Artists, Susskind worked his way into the Music Corporation of America's television program department, where he managed such personalities as Jerry Lewis and Dinah Shore.