Jump to content

Morton Downey Jr.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nick Dillinger (talk | contribs) at 12:26, 11 August 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Morton Downey, Jr. (December 9, 1933 – March 12, 2001) was a controversial and influential American television talk show host of the 1980s who pioneered the "trash talk show" format. Downey served a short stint as the general manager of an ABA franchise in New Orleans.

In the 1980s, Downey (christened Sean Morton Downey) was working as a talk show host at KFBK-AM in Sacramento, California, where he established his abrasive, and much imitated, right wing populist style, relentlessly deriding anyone who disagreed with him or had a liberal point of view.

Downey later headed to New York City where his highly controversial television program "The Morton Downey Jr. Show" was taped. (His replacement at KFBK was Rush Limbaugh.) He rose to fame in 1987 when his program featured screaming matches between Downey, his guests, and his audience members. Downey's signature phrase pablum puker (referring to political liberals) briefly enjoyed some popularity in the conservative media.

In 1989, as fascination with Downey's show had begun to wane, he was involved in an incident in a San Francisco International Airport restroom in which he claimed to have been attacked by neo-Nazis who painted a swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head. Some inconsistencies in Downey's account (e.g. the swastika on his forehead was painted in reverse, suggesting that Downey had drawn it himself in a mirror), and the failure of the police to find evidence supporting his story, let many to suspect that the incident was a hoax and a plea for attention. Years later, after the statute of limitations had run on the crime of making a false report to police, Downey admitted the incident was staged.

He also appeared at WrestleMania V in 1989. He was one of the guests on a special Piper's Pit. In the sketch, he antagonized host Rowdy Roddy Piper by blowing smoke in his face, calling him a transvestite, and telling him to "zip it." In the end, the good-natured Canadian got even by shooting a fire extinguisher in Downey's face.

In 1990, Downey starred as TV tabloid journalist "Tony Pope" in Predator 2, a role that closely mirrored his real-life television antics.

His parents were also in show business; his father Morton Downey was a popular singer, and his mother Barbara Bennett Downey was a singer and dancer. His aunts included Hollywood film stars Constance Bennett and Joan Bennett, from whom he was estranged, and his maternal grandfather was the celebrated matinée idol Richard Bennett.

Like his father, Downey pursued music as a career, recording in both pop and country styles. One song, "Green Eyed Girl" scraped the bottom reaches of the Billboard Magazine Country chart, peaking at #95 in 1981. After the success of his talk show, Downey would return to the recording studio to cut an album of songs based on his show.

Late in life, Downey, who was sometimes known to blow tobacco smoke into people's faces on his show, became an anti-tobacco crusader, as a direct response to his own terminal case of lung cancer from which he would die at the age of 67.

In interviews he also expressed regret for some of his TV show's extreme theatrics, saying he had taken things too far.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morton_Downey_Jr.&oldid=69007364"