Morley Safer was an award-winning CBS News correspondent best known for his nearly five decades with 60 Minutes. His 46 years as a member of the iconic newsmagazine was the longest period of time a person spent on primetime network television.
Safer joined 60 Minutes in 1970, when he replaced Harry Reasoner. By that time, Safer had already established himself as a foreign correspondent who had reported from numerous international locations, including wartime Vietnam, where he exposed shocking activity in a 1965 segment in which U.S. Marines were seen burning villagers' thatched huts. The report, which aired on CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, infuriated the U.S. government — and was hailed as one of the best news pieces of the 20th century by New York University.
In addition to hard news, his career included an array of cultural, historical and human interest reports, including segments about shooting pool with Jackie Gleason, tango dancing in Finland and the cartoonists for The New Yorker magazine.
Morley Safer was an award-winning CBS News correspondent best known for his nearly five decades with 60 Minutes. His 46 years as a member of the iconic newsmagazine was the longest period of time a person spent on primetime network television.
Safer joined 60 Minutes in 1970, when he replaced Harry Reasoner. By that time, Safer had already established himself as a foreign correspondent who had reported from numerous international locations, including wartime Vietnam, where he exposed shocking activity in a 1965 segment in which U.S. Marines were seen burning villagers' thatched huts. The report, which aired on CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, infuriated the U.S. government — and was hailed as one of the best news pieces of the 20th century by New York University.
In addition to hard news, his career included an array of cultural, historical and human interest reports, including segments about shooting pool with Jackie Gleason, tango dancing in Finland and the cartoonists for The New Yorker magazine.
Born in Toronto, Safer began his career as a newspaper journalist before establishing himself on television at the Canadian Broadcasting Company. He joined CBS in 1964 while working for the CBC in London.
He garnered recognition at a young age when he received the Paul White Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association — a distinction typically granted for lifetime achievement — when he was just 35 years old. His numerous other professional accolades included 12 Emmys, four duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Peabody Awards, three Overseas Press Club Awards and two George Polk Memorial Awards, as well as a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism first prize for domestic television, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Awards and a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government.
Safer died May 19, 2016, in New York City. He was 84.
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