Art Linkletter, the legendary host of several television shows in the 1950’s and ’60’s, has died at age 97. Read more on Art Linkletter and see his videos with children below.
Art Linkletter reportedly died at his home in Los Angeles on Wednesday at the age of 97.
Linkletter was the host of “House Party”, one of the longest-running variety shows on television. It started on the radio in 1944 and was then on television from 1952 to 1969.
In one of his segments Linkletter would interview children, often called “Kids Say the Darndest Things”.
Art’s other popular show, “People Are funny”, also began on radio in 1942 and then ran on television from 1954 to 1961. This game show had people competing by performing stunts for cash prizes.
“Over the years I have tried to create an image of a happy man dedicated to fun and laughter,” Linkletter said in 1960. “I have been willing to joke about my own faults and foibles and to talk about the troublesome things in my life, and I have kidded people about theirs. The world needs laughter more than ever, and I intend to spread it around.”
Art Linkletter was born Arthur Gordon Kelly on July 17, 1912, to an unwed mother. He was put up for adoption and when he was seven his adoptive parents moved to the United States and settled in San Diego.
Linkletter’s married wife Lois in 1935 and they had five children. In 1969, his daughter Diane committed suicide and in 1980 his son Robert died in a car accident. Then in 2007, his other son, Jack, died from lymphoma.
“Life is not fair,” Linkletter once said in an Associated Press interview in 1990. “But I’m an optimist. Even though I’ve had tragedies in my life, and I’ve seen a lot of difficult things, I still am an optimist.”
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