Winchell, Walter

Winchell, Walter

 orig. Walter Winchel

(born April 7, 1897, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Feb. 20, 1972, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. journalist and broadcaster. He entered vaudeville at age 13 and eventually began contributing tidbits to the Vaudeville News. Later, as a full-time gossip columnist, he moved to the New York Daily Mirror, where his widely syndicated column appeared until 1963. He had a weekly radio program from 1932 until the early 1950s. A prolific phrasemaker, he was noted for his slangy Broadway idiom. His opinionated news reports brought him a massive audience and great influence from the 1930s through the 1950s. He served as the unseen narrator of the television drama series The Untouchables (1959–63).

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Winchell, Walter (b. Winchel) (1897–1972) journalist; born in Chicago. Father of the newspaper gossip column, which he pioneered in the 1920s along with many slangy neologisms, Winchell also was a familiar voice on radio, from 1929 through the mid-1950s, with his staccato delivery punctuated by the sound of teletype keys.