David Frost

Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE ( born April 7, 1939 in Tenterden, Kent, England; † August 31, 2013 aboard the Queen Elizabeth ) was a British journalist, television presenter and politsatiriker. He was one of the most famous English-language television interviewer and wrote with his interview of Richard Nixon for Watergate television history.

Life

Frost was the son of a Methodist pastor and studied on a scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University English Literature ( after he had already signed a contract to play for the football club FC Nottingham Forest ). At the same time he was secretary of the Student Theatre Footlights and editor of the student newspaper Varsity and the literary magazine Granta. He also appeared as a cabaret artist and was a trainee at Associated - Rediffusion, a television production company.

1962/63 he was moderator of the politsatirischen BBC television program That Was The Week That Was ( TW3 ), which was very successful, but was deposed in the election year 1964. 1964/65 was an adaptation at NBC in the United States after Frost had found there by a TW3 episode in memory of the just murdered John F. Kennedy in 1963 attention. It was followed by other programs satire, the Frost Report 1966/67, in which also began the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker.

In the direction of journalism he moved with his interview format (before studio audience ) The Frost Programme, in which he insurance fraud and imposture of Emil Savundra revealed, among other things, what is considered the first example of Trial by Television in the UK. He then had several interview programs in the United States and Britain, which were also broadcast worldwide, such as Frost on America in the 1970s in the U.S. and Frost on Sunday from 1984 to 1992 in TV -am, followed by Breakfast with Frost 1993-2005 for the BBC. He interviewed here all British prime minister since 1964 and every U.S. president since 1969, but even celebrities like Muhammad Ali ( Zaire at the Rumble in the Jungle ), Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ( in his last interview), Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, the Beatles and Prince Charles.

He was known in 1977, when he interviewed the ex-president of the United States Richard Nixon, who had been forced to resign three years earlier because of the Watergate scandal Worldwide. The interview which was published in 2008 completely on DVD, originated from a total of 28 hours conversations that took place over 12 days. When discussing Watergate Nixon expressed the disturbing view that the president is above the law. Finally Frost brought him to admit to have betrayed the interests of the American people. British writer Peter Morgan sat in the interview to the play Frost / Nixon, which was successfully performed in 2006 in London's West End. Two years later, the play of Ron Howard under the title Frost / Nixon was filmed.

Frost was also the author of 15 books. He founded several television production companies ( among others, he was co-founder in 1981 of the British breakfast television production company TV -am ), and he received numerous awards for his television career. Among other things, in 2005 he was a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts ( BAFTA ). He was honored with the title of OBE and in 1993 a Knight Bachelor.

From 2006 to 2012, he presented the weekly interview broadcast Frost over the World on the channel Al Jazeera English. On the same channel then successively several parties ran from 2012 to 2013 under the name The Frost Interview a format in the frost in the same hour airtime instead of usually only one interviewed.

Private

Frost Between 1981 and 1982, Lynne Frederick, widow of Peter Sellers, married. Since 1983, he was married to Lady Carina Fitzalan - Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, by whom he had three sons.

End of August 2013 was frost guest on board the Queen Elizabeth. During a speech given thereon he suddenly suffered a heart attack and died.