Barbara was the first woman to co-anchor a network newscast and the foremost prime-time interviewer of heads of state and Hollywood stars.
When she was a teenager in New York City, she saw that TV gave an escape to her sister, who was mentally disabled. Her father's nightclub business fell off due to television's ability to keep people in their homes at night rather than out on the town.
She spent more than five decades in front of the camera and became a titan of the medium, even memed for how she presented herself.
The industry was against her when she began. The men did the hiring The men made a decision. The men were the ones to deliver the news.
In her 2008 memoir, "Audition," she wrote that her legs persuaded the head of a small Manhattan advertising agency to hire her after she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. She left when her boss became too amorous. She found low level jobs at NBC and CBS.
She joined NBC's "Today" show in 1961. She was dressed as a "Today Girl" when she went before the cameras. She wore a Playboy Bunny costume while reporting on Paris Fashion Week, but soon started looking for more independence.
In 1965, Gloria Steinem wrote about the rise of women in television news in a New York Times article.
Ms. Steinem wrote that MissWalters not only appears on camera but writes her own script, researches, directs and edits her own filmed reports.
She was the host of NBC's talk show for women only. She changed the name of the show to "Not for Women Only" and it became a syndicated success. She was one of the TV correspondents who accompanied the President on his trip to China.
She was the first female co- host of the "Today" show. She was not allowed to ask questions at on-set guests until her male co-host asked three of his own, a restriction she bypassed by seeking out interviews away from the show's studio. She was given the title of co- host by NBC in 1974.
"People may have loved her or hated her, but they sure as hell watched her," said a "Today" producer.
She was the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news program. She was the highest paid newscaster at the time. She said her time on ABC Evening News was a flop.
She told Vogue that Harry Reasoner was awful to her on and off the air. She once said that she had to rely on her knowledge of the New York Yankees to convince the stage hands to talk to her. John Wayne sent her a telegram to cheer her up because she was so sad.
She stayed at ABC News for 25 years and developed a reputation for getting public figures to speak to her first. She was the first to interview the actor after he was paralyzed in a horseback riding accident. About 50 million people watched her interview with Monica Lewinsky.
The ABC daytime talk show "The View" has a panel of women that include Star Jones, Lisa Ling, and Rosie O'Donnell. When it started, she was 67 years old.
Many women, including Jane Pauley, Judy Woodruff and Gwen Ifill, followed in her footsteps. O'Donnell said she used to impersonate Ms.
The final taping of "The View" was attended by dozens of women, including Oprah Winfrey.
She didn't start out waving a banner and saying "I'm going to change things for women" I think my work, my example, and some of the struggles I went through changed the way women are viewed on television.
"She rattled a lot of cages before women were even allowed into the zoo," said a long time competitor of Ms.
Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley ruled television news early in their careers due to their interviewing approach that combined charm and intensity.
She became an inescapable, if easily parodied, national monument because she was more newsier than other entertainment reporters.
She played a sport with a big man. She was given a lap dance. During a 1977 interview with the Cuban revolutionary, Ms.Walters sat in his open Jeep holding his revolver as well as candy for him to pass out to children during the drive, and later dined on grilled cheese sandwiches that he prepared at 1 a.m.
Ms.Walters would write notes to potential guests. She was fond of asking personal questions and brought her subjects to tears. She wrote "How to Talk with Practically Anything" in 1970.
She posed foreign policy questions to every president and first lady from Richard and Pat Nixon to this day. She might want to know if Ricky Martin is gay or if Barbra Streisand is.
She regretted using the 2000 interview to pressure Mr. Martin, who did not come out until 2010 and told People magazine in 2021.
Ms. Walters was eccentric. Jane Fonda and Stockard Channing were in films. Ms.Walters had a distinctive Boston bleat at once flat, hoarse and nasal, which Vogue characterized as "a distinctive Boston bleat at once flat, hoarse and nasal"
She used to joke that she should have been named Diane Sawyer because her name was too difficult to say.
A Madame Tussauds wax figure of her was created.
She didn't seem to mind that celebrity defined her.
She described her father as a "brilliant and volatile impresario" who made and lost fortunes in show business.
Howard Hughes and the Kennedy family were some of the customers he worked with. When she saw them off stage and up close, she realized that they were real people.
She had relationships with many people in her personal life.
Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, was one of Ms.Walters's lovers. She continued to be friends with Roger Ailes despite going on a few dates. She came under fire for defending Woody Allen after Dylan Farrow accused him of sexually abusing her as a child.
Ms.Walters had questions about her relationships with sources after moving in the highest levels of power. In 1987, she passed documents from Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms merchant, to the White House, a move that met with outrage from the journalism community. She did not reveal that she invested $100,000 in the Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Sunset Boulevard" when she interviewed him for "20/20" in 1996. She was reprimanded by ABC News.
She said that it wouldn't happen again.
She was criticized for asking softball questions and portraying herself in a positive way. The Syrian president, who had spent years violently crushing dissent, was described as a fresh pragmatic leader by Ms. Walters before she grilled him about his time spent as a dictator.
Ms. Walters apologized for trying to help one of the aides who helped arrange the interview.
She told Vogue that since she works for the news department, she doesn't know what party she'll vote for or who she'll support.
She told The Times in 1972 that she would step on someone's sensitivities if the interview demanded it.
She told the group that female reporters should do their job and not be nice. Don't be silly. Do you want to be a journalist?
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