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Robert MacNeil Biography (1931-)

Full name, Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil; born January 19, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; immigrated to the United States, 1963; son of Robert A. S. and Margaret Virginia (maiden name, Oxner) MacNeil; married Rosemarie AnneCopland, 1956 (divorced, 1964); married Jane J. Doherty, May 29, 1965 (divorced, 1983); married Donna P. Richards, October 20, 1984; children: (first marriage) Catherine Anne, Ian B.; (second marriage) Alison N., William H.

Nationality

Canadian

Gender

Male

Occupation

Broadcast journalist

Birth Details

January 19, 1931

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Famous Works

• CREDITS
• Television Appearances
• Series
• Host, Let's Go to the Museum, CBC (Canada), 1954
• News anchor, Scherer-MacNeil Report, WNBC-TV (New York City), 1965-1967
• Correspondent, Panorama, BBC (England), 1967-1971, 1973-1975
• (With others) Moderator, Washington Week in Review, National Educational Television, 1972-1973
• (With Jim Lehrer) Anchor, Robert MacNeil Report, PBS, 1975
• (With Lehrer) Anchor, MacNeil-Lehrer Report, PBS, 1975-1983
• (With Lehrer) Anchor, MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, PBS, 1983-1995
• Also appeared in The Huntley-Brinkley Report.
• Specials
• Coanchor, A Public-Affair/Election '71, PBS, 1972
• Coanchor, America '73, PBS, 1973
• Correspondent, The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, BBC (England), 1974
• Narrator, Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record (also known as Slow Fires), 1987
• Host and commentator, Bah, Humbug! The Story of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol " (also known as Bah, Humbug!), PBS, 1994
• Correspondent for The Whole World Is Watching, PBS; anchor of thespecials The Big Ear and The Right to Bear Arms, both NBC.
• Miniseries
• Narrator, The Story of English, 1986
• Episodic
• Appeared in an episode of Sesame Street.
• Television Work
• Series
• Executive editor, MacNeil-Lehrer Report, PBS, 1975-1983
• Executive editor, MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, PBS, 1983-1995
• Film Appearances
• Himself (in archive footage), Action: The October Crisis of 1970 (also known as Les evenements d'octobre), 1973
• Narrator, Some Call It Greed, 1977
• Himself (in archive footage), The Panama Deception, 1992
• Himself, Beyond "JFK": The Question of Conspiracy, 1992
• Player king, Hamlet, Miramax, 2000
• RECORDINGS
• Videos
• (With Jim Lehrer) Host, Fifteen Years of MacNeil/Lehrer, PBS, 1990
• WRITINGS
• Nonfiction
• The People Machine: The Influence of Television on American Politics, Harper (New York City), 1968
• The Right Place at the Right Time (memoir), Little, Brown (Boston,MA), 1982
• (With Robert McCrum and William Cran) The Story of English (narrative to accompany nine-part public television series), Viking (New York City),1986 revised edition, Penguin Books (New York City), 1993
• (Editor) The Way We Were: 1963, the Year Kennedy Was Shot (Book ofthe Month Club selection), Carroll & Graf (New York City), 1988
• Wordstruck: A Memoir, Viking, 1989
• Eudora Welty: Seeing Black and White, University Press of Mississippi, 1990
• Contributor of chapters to book. Contributor to journals, including Listener, Harper's, Nation, Travel and Leisure, and TV Guide.
• Novels
• Burden of Desire, Doubleday (New York City), 1992
• The Voyage, Doubleday, 1995
• Breaking News, Harcourt (New York City), 1999

Further Reference

ADAPTATIONS

• MacNeil's book Wordstruck: A Memoir was adapted as an audio book.

OTHER SOURCES

Periodicals

• America, October 21, 1995, p. 12
• January, December, 1998
• Maclean's, June 8, 1998, p. 37; August 17, 1998, p. 11
• Newsweek, October 30, 1995, p. 88
• U.S. News & World Report, October 19, 1998, p. 58

Electronic

• A Tribute to Robert MacNeil, http://www.pbs.org/newshour, October20, 1995