Mike Wallace: A Life

In his four decades as the front man for 60 Minutes‚ Mike Wallace earned the distinction of being hyperaggressive‚ self-assured‚ and unflinching in his riveting exposés of injustice and corruption. But during an unrivaled career interviewing with every major newsmaker of the late twentieth century‚ Wallace suffered from profound depression. This is the story of a courageous man who triumphed over personal adversity and redefined the landscape of television news.

About the Author :
PETER RADER was raised in Rome and educated at Harvard University. A filmmaker and screenwriter, he has developed projects for all the major Hollywood studios. Rader resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons.

Review :
"Bold, well-crafted biography of a long-elusive and controversial public figure."--"Kirkus Reviews ""It's not widely known that 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace started in Chicago radio-television of the 1940s as actor Myron Wallace, appearing in Ma Perkins and other soap operas. And earlier, as Rader reminds readers in this colorful biography, Wallace was The Green Hornet's announcer. With Night Beat in the late 1950s, after having moved to New York, the ambitious Wallace became an "overnight celebrity" because of his aggressive, rapid-fire interviews: "Night after night, Mike eviscerated them like a matador." Abrasive bulldog tactics became his signature style, and when 60 Minutes began in 1968, Wallace's investigative reporting and "ambush interviews" eventually brought him both controversy but also acclaim as one of the best broadcast journalists. Wallace has written his own memoirs more than once ("Close Encounters" in 1984; "Between You and Me," 2005), which spliced in memorable interviews. Rader fills in the gaps with comprehensive coverage that includes accusations of "juvenile" sexual antics, self-doubts, lawsuits, the 1962 accidental death of his son, failed marriages, bouts with depression, a suicide attempt, and his "Jekyll and Hyde personality--sometimes magnanimous and charming, other times almost sadistic." Influenced by his screenwriting, Rader (Waterworld) employs a cinematic writing style for this vivid portrait of Wallace set against a backdrop of technological television innovations."--"Publishers Weekly ""Mike Wallace was a television pioneer who transformed the news interview. In his quest to make news reporting less deferential and more hard-hitting, he also helped blur the lines between factual program making and entertainment. This makes him a controversial figure in the history of popular culture - and Peter Rader has done an excellent job of putting him in the context of a fast changing America. Rader's greatest accomplishment isv "It's not widely known that 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace started in Chicago radio-television of the 1940s as actor Myron Wallace, appearing in Ma Perkins and other soap operas. And earlier, as Rader reminds readers in this colorful biography, Wallace was The Green Hornet's announcer. With Night Beat in the late 1950s, after having moved to New York, the ambitious Wallace became an "overnight celebrity" because of his aggressive, rapid-fire interviews: "Night after night, Mike eviscerated them like a matador." Abrasive bulldog tactics became his signature style, and when 60 Minutes began in 1968, Wallace's investigative reporting and "ambush interviews" eventually brought him both controversy but also acclaim as one of the best broadcast journalists. Wallace has written his own memoirs more than once ("Close Encounters" in 1984; "Between You and Me," 2005), which spliced in memorable interviews. Rader fills in the gaps with comprehensive coverage that includes accusations of "juvenile" sexual antics, self-doubts, lawsuits, the 1962 accidental death of his son, failed marriages, bouts with depression, a suicide attempt, and his "Jekyll and Hyde personality--sometimes magnanimous and charming, other times almost sadistic." Influenced by his screenwriting, Rader (Waterworld) employs a cinematic writing style for this vivid portrait of Wallace set against a backdrop of technological television innovations."--"Publishers Weekly ""Mike Wallace was a television pioneer who transformed the news interview. In his quest to make news reporting less deferential and more hard-hitting, he also helped blur the lines between factual program making and entertainment. This makes him a controversial figure in the history of popular culture - and Peter Rader has done an excellent job of putting him in the context of a fast changing America. Rader's greatest accomplishment is to show how the drama of Wallace's private life reflected...the complex revolution going on in television j "Mike Wallace was a television pioneer who transformed the news interview. In his quest to make news reporting less deferential and more hard-hitting, he also helped blur the lines between factual program making and entertainment. This makes him a controversial figure in the history of popular culture - and Peter Rader has done an excellent job of putting him in the context of a fast changing America. Rader's greatest accomplishment is to show how the drama of Wallace's private life reflected...the complex revolution going on in television journalism. Full of repressed desires, ambition, foolishness and regret, this book is a fine example of how one life can represent the triumphs and tribulations of an entire generation."--Timothy Stanley, author of "The Crusader: the Life and Tumultuous Times of Pat Buchanan" "Mike Wallace as a groundbreaking, tough-minded journalist and Mike Wallace as a thin-skinned, self-doubting bully. While the broad outlines of Wallace's trajectory have been told before, no one has probed as deeply, or with as much intelligence, insight and good judgment, as Peter Rader. This is a first-rate biography that captures the life of a man who has shaped his profession and embodies all of its myriad strengths and weaknesses."--Timothy L. O'Brien, Executive Editor, "The Huffington Post"