Name: Lisa Howard
Date of Birth: 24 April 1930 One of the first women to have her own television news show, she became the central intermediary in the Kennedy-Castro dialogue. Howard had been an actress and soap opera star before she broke into journalism in 1960 by scoring the first major interview with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations. She was hired by ABC news as a reporter and subsequently became the anchor for ABC's noontime news broadcast, "The NewsHour with Lisa Howard." Her two specials on Cuba, in 1963 and 1964... , were the most substantive coverage of Castro's revolution in the early 1960s. She died in 1965.Had two daughters, one from each marriage.Committed suicide on July 4, 1965 with an overdose of sleeping pills at her East Hampton, Long Island home after having been released from Mount Sinai Hospital on July 2. She had spent three weeks there after suffering the miscarriage of her third child.Threatened to sue ABC for damages of $2 million and block the network from continuing to use the "format or structure" of her news show after she was fired from ABC in September of 1964. The New York Supreme Court rejected her suit in January 1965.She did admit that being a woman did help at times in getting interviews from such politicos as Fidel Castro, the Shah of Iran and Nikita Khrushchev.Was active in the Lexington Democratic Club and wrote "social protest" articles for liberal magazines like Progessive World.First made a name for herself as a journalist when she scored a major coup while working for the Mutual Broadcasting System covering the appearance of 'Nikita Khrushchev' (qv) at the UN in 1960.In 1963, Lisa went to Cuba to make a documentary, setting up interviews with both 'Fidel Castro (I)' (qv) and 'Ernesto 'Che' Guevara' (qv). She ultimately became an intermediary in negotiations between President Kennedy and Castro. Following Kennedy's assassination, the new president, Lyndon Johnson, refused to continue negotiations. Because of her persistent efforts to continue her efforts and pursue these negotiations with Castro and her partisan political activity with Republican Senator Kenneth Keating, she was eventually fired from ABC on September 29, 1964. She was replaced by 'Marlene Sanders' (qv).Worked during the 1950s as a film, stage and daytime TV soap actress before becoming a journalist in 1960, appearing in several films for her first husband 'Felix E. Feist' (qv).Read more Lisa Howard movies (actor)User Comments |
