He was a journalist and television presenter born
Edward Rudolph Bradley Jr. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.He went to boarding school when he
was nine and studied at Mount Saint Charles Academy in Rhode Island followed
by Cheyney State College in Pennsylvania, where he graduated from with a
degree in Education in 1964.Venturing into the teaching profession he taught sixth grade
students at Philadelphia's William B. Mann Elementary School and at the
same time worked at WDAS Studios as a newsreader, music programmer and basketball
commentator.In 1967 he joined
the WCBS radio station and in 1971 decided to pack everything up and move
to Paris, France.He came to a
time there though when he ran out of money and so worked in the field for
CBS News as a stringer at the 1971 Paris Peace Talks.The following year he applied to go
to Saigon as a reporter and from there he covered the wars in Vietnam and
Cambodia and got wounded in the process.Returning to the United States he settles in Washington
D.C. in 1974 and in 1976 was called upon to be the anchor for CBS Sunday
Night News as well as cover the Jimmy Carter Presidential campaign
which led to him being the White House Correspondent for CBS News.In 1978, he worked on CBS Reports and stayed there
for around three years until he was given the post on the show 60
Minutes, which had previously belonged to Dan Rather.This was to become "his" show and
he remained there for 26 years covering in excess of 500 stories and
interviewing guests such as Muhammed Ali, George Burns, Ray Charles,
Bob
Dylan , Lena Horne, Michael Jackson, Sir Mick
Jagger
, Sir Laurence Olivier, Howard
Stern and Liza Minnelli, who was the one who encouraged him to wear an
earring, and many more.Recognised many times for his contribution to the broadcasting
industry, the National Association of Black Journalists gave him a Lifetime
Achievement Award, he received 19 Emmy Awards that included a Lifetime
Achievement Emmy, won a Peabody Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism
Award among many others.In
the music world he also made his mark, although not to the same degree as in
his TV career, and for a time was called "the Fifth Neville Brother" as he
would often appear with them on stage.The
same went for his friend Jimmy
Buffett who called
him "Teddy Badly" when he appeared with him at concerts and often sang a
rendition of "Sixty Minute Man".He was also the host of Jazz at Lincoln Center for
more then 10 years.In the
2000s he was hit by chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and, after complications
set in, he died aged 65 in hospital in Manhattan.His friend, the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, closed 60
Minutes by playing solo jazz music that night and The New Orleans
Jazzfest honoured him the following year by staging a jazz funeral
procession.He was married to
the artist Patricia Blanchet.
