Legendary News broadcaster Barbara Walters has died, ABC news reported in a special broadcast. She was 93.
Walters joined ABC in 1972 and quickly became a household name in the United States. She was the first female anchor on an evening news program and in 1979 became a co-host of the award-winning "20/20" news show. In 1997, she launched "The View." Both shows remain staples on American television screens today.
Walters stepped down as a co-host of the View in 2014, but remained as an executive producer and continued to occasionally conduct interviews for ABC News late into her life. Her career spanned five decades, during which she won 12 Emmy awards.
FILE - This June 5, 2003 file photo shows co-hosts, from left, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, Joy Behar and Barbara Walters on the set of "The View" in New York. In July 2006, Jones surprised the audience by announcing that she would be leaving after 10 years. It was six years before she was welcomed back onto the ABC show as a guest.
© AP Photo / ED BAILEY
Known for her interviews, Walters got her start as a correspondent before working her way up to news anchor.
"We were all influenced by Barbara Walters," ABC News' David Muir said in a tribute that aired Friday. Muir called her an "extraordinary human being, journalist, pioneer, legend."
Posting on Twitter, Disney CEO and former President of ABC Television, Bob Igor posted on Twitter about Walters' life and death.
"Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself. She was a one-of-a-kind reporter who landed many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state and leaders of regimes to the biggest celebrities and sports icons. I had the pleasure of calling Barbara a colleague for more than three decades, but more importantly, I was able to call her a dear friend. She will be missed by all of us at The Walt Disney Company, and we send our deepest condolences to her daughter, Jacqueline."
Walters was born on September 25, 1929, in Boston, Massachusetts to Dena and Louis Walters. Her dad was a nightclub owner and Walters joined the news business after her family went broke. She went on to interview some of the richest and most powerful people in the world.
Walters' longtime representative and friend Cindi Berger responded to the news by calling Walters "a trailblazer not only for female journalists but for all women," noting that she died peacefully and while surrounded by loved ones in her home.
FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2014 file photo, Barbara Walters addresses an audience at the John F. Kennedy School of Government on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The Investigation Discovery channel said Thursday that "Barbara Walters Presents American Scandals" will debut Nov. 2. The hour-long episodes will focus on the big news stories Walters covered during her career.
© AP Photo / Steven Senne
Before working at ABC, Walters graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in the 1950s and got work as a writer for NBC's Today show in 1961. Later, she would become the show's first female host and won her first Emmy for her work there in 1975. The next year she would join ABC's Evening News as the first female co-anchor of an evening news program.
During a 2014 ceremony that renamed part of the ABC News headquarters "The Barbara Walters Building," Walters explained what she thought of her legacy.
"[I]t's not the interviews with presidents, or heads of state, nor celebrities. If I have a legacy, and I've said this before and I mean it so sincerely, I hope that I played a small role in paving the way for so many of you fabulous women."
She is survived by her daughter Jacqueline Dena Guber. She was married four times to three different men, trying twice with TV executive Merv Adelson.