Media This article is more than 17 years oldObituaryEd Bradley
This article is more than 17 years oldBlack American reporter and master of the interviewer's art on 60 MinutesReporter Ed Bradley, who has died aged 65, was one of the first black Americans to star in a leading television news programme, the documentary-magazine 60 Minutes, with its famous ticking stopwatch. He was also the only American male on the medium who wore a single earring and had a stubbly beard, and his ultimate accomplishment may have been that viewers hardly noticed either distinguishing feature.
Instead, they watched a cool and confident professional who specialised in the hard interview, usually asking extremely difficult questions yet managing to leave his subjects, if not smiling, at least showing no resentment. "When the interview was over and the subject had taken a pretty heavy lashing, they left as friends," said former CBS news announcer Walter Cronkite. "He was that kind of guy."
Bradley's death from leukaemia came as a surprise to his millions of admirers, for he had kept it almost secret. His last report, about an oil refinery explosion in Texas, was broadcast on October 29, the day he entered hospital for the last time.
He did not join 60 Minutes until 1981, which former producer Don Hewitt admitted later was rather overdue. Even then an African-American broadcaster was still enough of a novelty for Hewitt to joke about it. "I hired Ed because he was a member of a minority," he announced to shocked silence, then added: "He's a great gentleman and a great reporter and if that ain't a minority, I don't know one."
Bradley's most famous interviews included: persuading boxer Muhammad Ali to speak for the first time about his struggle with Parkinson's disease; the only prison conversation with condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who described his disillusionment with fighting in the Gulf war of 1991; a 2003 chat with singer Michael Jackson while he awaited trial for alleged child molestation; the usually camera-shy singer/songwriter Bob Dylan; and a revealing talk with the jazz singer Lena Horne.
But his finest moment came in a programme before he joined 60 Minutes. He was on the Malaysian coast in 1979 reporting for CBS on Vietnamese refugees, when he saw a group drowning offshore. He rushed into the water and began grabbing people. "One man died virtually in his arms but he saved many," said Tom Yellin, a producer who witnessed the event. "If the cameras hadn't been there he would have done the same thing ... He showed that reporters could take an active role without becoming advocates."
Bradley had graduated from Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) in 1964. A jazz lover, Bradley became a part-time disc jockey and radio news reporter in his native Philadelphia while teaching in a school. Fluent in French, he became a part-time reporter at the CBS Paris bureau in 1971, moving to its Saigon office the following year. He was promoted to correspondent in 1973 but was wounded by shrapnel in Cambodia and sent to Washington to recover.
There he became the only black reporter on the White House beat, though he did not enjoy it. In March 1975, now fully recovered, he volunteered to cover the fall of Saigon, which he did, before returning to Washington as the network's correspondent from 1976 to 1978. Again he managed to get away, and from 1978 until he joined 60 Minutes he anchored the Sunday night news.
Although Bradley's screen persona was the archetype of a calm and poised operator, he had a wicked sense of humour that he frequently visited upon producer Hewitt. At one point he told him he wanted to change his name to Shahib Shahab and would thus follow the opening of 60 Minutes after co-presenters Mike Wallace and Morley Safer had announced themselves by saying: "And I'm Shahib Shahab."
This put Hewitt, who was uneasy over questions of race and minorities, in a spot. It could look like unsavoury discrimination if he banned Bradley from using his new name. Hewitt became increasingly concerned until Bradley finally relented and told him it was a joke.
Bradley counted jazz musicians Wynton Marsalis and George Wein among his friends, and frequently visited jazz concerts in New Orleans as well as hosting the Jazz at the Lincoln Centre radio show on 240 stations until his death.
His third marriage, to Patricia Blanchet, took place two years ago. He had no children.
ยท Edward Rudolph Bradley, television journalist, born June 22 1941; died November 9 2006
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