Robin Leach

Robin Leach
Born Robin Douglas Leach
(1941-08-29) 29 August 1941
London Borough of Ealing, Perivale
Occupation Television personality, entertainment reporter, writer, columnist
Years active 1982–present
Spouse(s) None

Robin Douglas Leach (born 29 August 1941) is an English entertainment reporter and writer, best-known for hosting his first show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, in the mid-1980s and into the mid-1990s, which focused on profiling well-known celebrities and their lavish homes, cars and other materialistic details. His voice is often parodied by other actors with his signature phrase, "champagne wishes and caviar dreams." During the final season, he was assisted by Shari Belafonte, and the show was renamed, Lifestyles with Robin Leach and Shari Belafonte. Leach resides in Las Vegas.

Early life

Born in Perivale, west London, UK.[1] During grammar school at Harrow County School for Boys, 10 miles (16 km) from London, he edited a school magazine, The Gayton Times, at age 14. At age 15 he became a general news reporter for the Harrow Observer and started a monthly glossy town magazine at age 17.

Career

Leach moved on to the Daily Mail as Britain's youngest "Page One" reporter, at age 18. In 1963, he emigrated to America and wrote for a number of publications (New York Daily News, People, Ladies Home Journal etc.) before launching GO Magazine[2] and then was show business editor of The Star.

Other television work includes reporting for People Tonight, on CNN and Entertainment Tonight and helping start Good Morning Australia, as well as the Food Network. Leach was also a guest at the World Wrestling Federation's WrestleMania IV, where he read the rules for the championship tournament. In 1993, for the Fox network, Leach hosted an exposé documentary of Madonna titled "Madonna Xposed." The documentary was a biography of Madonna focusing on her career and publicity stunts. Before the documentary aired, he gave Madonna a cell phone number; he claimed that at any point during the airing Madonna could call Leach and argue any point. Madonna never called and the documentary continued without incident. He also hosted Lifestyles spinoff Fame, Fortune & Romance, along with future Today Show host Matt Lauer.

Leach hosted The Surreal Life: Fame Games on VH1 in 2007. He also served as the public address announcer for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Since 2008, he had resided in Las Vegas and writes for the Las Vegas Sun and the daily VegasDeluxe.com website.[3]

Leach appeared in the documentary film Maxed Out in 2006, which chronicled the rise of the credit card industry in the U.S. along with increased personal debt among working class people and criticized that industry's practices. Leach remarks, "Nobody would watch Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown". The comment was highlighted by a review in the Baltimore Sun.[4]

Other appearances

In popular culture

References

  1. "Robin Leach Biography (1941-)". www.filmreference.com. Retrieved 2015-10-25.
  2. "GO Magazine". Musicradio 77 WABC. Retrieved 14 September 2013. GO Magazine was a North America-wide free newspaper/magazine that was distributed between 1967 and 1969.
  3. "Robin Leach's Las Vegas Celebrity Watch". Greenspun Interactive Media. Retrieved 19 December 2008.
  4. Eileen Ambrose. "Movie about credit-card woes was to be a comedy". Baltimore Sun.
  5. "On the Air". Boy Meets World. Season 2. Episode 17. 10 February 1995. ABC.
  6. "Shark Tank — Season 4 Week 3". Shark Tank. Season 4. Episode 3. 28 September 2012. ABC. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  7. i6.minus.com
  8. "Dana Carvey as Robin Leach". Yahoo Screen. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robin Leach.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.