Tag: regis dead

WATCH: Regis Philbin with David Letterman after 9/11

The TV moment I remember Regis Philbin most for was when he joined David Letterman after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Watch it here.

When one thinks of Regis Philbin they may think of his historic run on television on a number of different shows.

Likely it’s from his run on “Live!” with Kathie Lee, Kelly Ripa or for a short-time, by himself that he hosted.

Others may think of game shows, especially “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” that he helped turn into a TV phenomenon.

Those are all great and worthy of praise as we remember Regis today after his death at 88 years old Friday night.

One thing I will always remember about Regis however happened on TV but didn’t occur on a show he actually hosted.

A week after 9/11 back in 2001, when we started to return to life as normal, or at least as best as we all could, David Letterman returned to “The Late Show” on CBS.

After an obviously emotional start to the program and just after a visit from Dan Rather, Letterman welcomed Regis Philbin as his guest.

For some reason I always remembered Letterman saying early in the show that “Regis is here so at least we have something to laugh at” and it helped break the uneasiness everyone was going through in even the slightest way.

You can watch the full episode of “The Late Show” from September 17, 2001 by clicking here or if you’d like to watch Regis’s appearance that night, simply click play on the video below.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxGWrsGntY&w=560&h=315]

Regis Philbin – TV Legend and Notre Dame Graduate, Dead at 88

There may not be a more famous non-athlete from Notre Dame than Regis Philbin. Sadly the TV legend died Friday night at 88 years old.

There aren’t many non-athletes that attended the University of Notre Dame that are better-known than Regis Philbin.

The legendary TV talk show and game show host graduated from the University in 1953 as a sociology major.  He then served in the Navy before getting into show-business via behind-the-scenes jobs.

After hosting various different shows everywhere from St. Louis to San Diego, Philbin earned a co-hosting spot on the famed “Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee” that ran from 1988 until her retirement in 2000.  He stayed with the show that was briefly named “Live! with Regis” before Kelly Ripa became his full-time co-host in 2001.

“Live! with Regis and Kelly” aired until 2011.

It wasn’t just talk shows, it was game shows where Philbin shined as well.  “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” may be for what he is most-known in the game show industry but “The Neighbors”, “Almost Anything Goes” and “America’s Got Talent” all had Philbin’s finger prints on them, too.

Philbin was proud of where he went to college as he welcomed Lou Holtz, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis all to “Live!” at various different times.

Regis was also a member of the Notre Dame tennis team during his time at school

Regis Philbin died Friday night one month short of his 89th birthday.