Ричард Каветт: Американский телеведущий и его биография.

American talk show host (born 1936)

Richard Alva Cavett ('/k//æ//v//ᵻ//t/; born November 19, 1936) is an American television personality and former talk show host. He appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States from the 1960s through the 2000s. In later years, Cavett has written an online column for The New York Times, promoted DVDs of his former shows as well as a book of his Times columns, and hosted replays of his TV interviews with Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Salvador Dalí, Lee Marvin, Groucho Marx, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Luc Godard, Robert Mitchum, John Lennon, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Kirk Douglas and others on Turner Classic Movies.

Cavett was born in Buffalo County, Nebraska, but sources differ as to the specific town, locating his birthplace in either Gibbon, where his family lived, or nearby Kearney, the location of the nearest hospital. Cavett himself has stated that Gibbon was his birthplace. His mother, Erabel "Era" (née Richards), and his father, Alva B. Cavett, both worked as teachers. When asked by Lucille Ball on his own show about his heritage, he said he was "Scottish, Irish, English, and possibly partly French, and  a dose of German." He also mentioned that one grandfather "came over" from England, and the other from Wales. Cavett's grandparents all lived in Grand Island, Nebraska. His paternal grandparents were Alva A. Cavett and Gertrude Pinsch. His paternal grandfather was from Diller, Nebraska, and his paternal grandmother was an immigrant from Aachen, Germany, which is why he also speaks fluent German. His maternal grandparents were the Rev. R. R. and Etta Mae Richards. The Rev. Mr. Richards was from Carmarthen, Wales, and was a Baptist minister who served parishes across central Nebraska. Cavett himself is a self described agnostic. Cavett's parents taught in Comstock, Gibbon, and Grand Island, where Cavett started kindergarten at Wasmer Elementary School. Three years later, both of his parents landed teaching positions in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Cavett completed his education at Capitol, Prescott, and Irving schools and Lincoln High School. When Cavett was ten, his mother died of cancer at age 36. His father subsequently married Dorcas Deland, also a teacher, originally from Alliance, Nebraska. On September 24, 1995, Lincoln Public Schools dedicated the new Dorcas C. and Alva B. Cavett Elementary School in their honor. In eighth grade, Cavett directed a live Saturday morning radio show sponsored by the Junior League and played the title role in The Winslow Boy. One of his high school classmates was actress Sandy Dennis. Cavett was elected president of the student council in high school, and was a gold medalist at the state gymnastics championship. Before leaving for college, he worked as a caddie at the Lincoln Country Club. He also began performing magic shows for $35 a night under the tutelage of Gene Gloye. In 1952, Cavett attended the convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in St. Louis, Missouri, and won the Best New Performer trophy. While attending Yale University, Cavett played in and directed dramas on the campus radio station, WYBC, and appeared in Yale drama productions. In his senior year, he changed his major from English to drama (graduating in 1958). He also took advantage of any opportunity to meet stars, routinely going to shows in New York to hang around stage doors or venture backstage. He would go so far as to carry a copy of Variety or an appropriate piece of company stationery in order to look inconspicuous while sneaking backstage or into a TV studio. Cavett took many odd jobs ranging from store detective to label typist for a Wall Street firm, and as a copyboy at Time magazine.

in 1956, Cavett joined the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is based in Ashland, Oregon, for its 16th season. Cavett appeared as the Bishop of Ely and the second murderer in Tragedy of Richard the Third; a page to the king in Love's Labor's Lost; servant Gregory in The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet; a lord in The Tragedy of Cymbeline; and Quintus, son of Titus, in The Lamentable Tragedy.

In 1960, aged 23, Cavett was living in a three room, fifth floor apartment on West 89th Street in Manhattan for $51 a month, equal to $51.0 in 1960 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years today. Cavett was cast in a film by the Signal Corps, but further jobs were not forthcoming. He was an extra on The Phil Silvers Show in 1959, a TV remake of the film Body and Soul for the DuPont Show of the Month the same year, and Playhouse 90 ("The Hiding Place") in 1960. He briefly revived his magic act while working as a typist and as a mystery shopper in department stores. Meanwhile, his girlfriend and future wife Carrie Nye landed several Broadway roles. Cavett was a copyboy (gofer) at Time magazine when he read a newspaper item about Jack Paar, then host of The Tonight Show. The article described Paar's concerns about his opening monologue and constant search for material. Cavett wrote some jokes, put them into a Time envelope, and went to the RCA Building. He ran into Paar in a hallway and handed him the envelope. Cavett appeared on the show in 1961, acting as interpreter for Miss Universe of 1961, Marlene Schmidt of Germany. While at Time, Cavett wrote a letter to film comedian Arthur Jefferson, better known as Stan Laurel of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. The two soon met at Laurel's Hollywood apartment. On the evening of that first visit, Cavett wrote a tribute to him that Paar read on his show. Laurel saw the broadcast which he deeply appreciated. Cavett visited the legendary comedian several times. Their final time together came three weeks prior to Laurel's death in 1965. In his capacity as talent coordinator for The Tonight Show, Cavett was sent to the Blue Angel nightclub to see Woody Allen's act, and immediately afterward struck up a friendship. The very next day, the funeral of playwright George S. Kaufman was held at the Frank E. Campbell funeral home. Allen could not attend, but Cavett did, where he met Groucho Marx in an anteroom. From the funeral, Cavett followed Marx (who later told Cavett that Kaufman was "his personal god") three blocks up Fifth Avenue to the Plaza Hotel, where Marx invited him to lunch. Cavett continued with The Tonight Show as a writer after Johnny Carson assumed hosting duties. For Carson he wrote the quip "Having your taste criticized by Dorothy Kilgallen is like having your clothes criticized by Emmett Kelly." Cavett appeared on the show once, to do a gymnastics routine on the pommel horse. After departing The Tonight Show, Cavett wrote for Jerry Lewis's ill fated talk show, for three times the money.

Cavett began a brief career as a stand up comic in 1964 at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village. In 1965, Cavett did some commercial voiceovers, including a series of mock interviews with Mel Brooks for Ballantine beer. In the next couple of years he appeared on game shows, including What's My Line. He wrote for Merv Griffin and appeared on Griffin's talk show several times, and then on The Ed Sullivan Show. In the late 1960s or early 1970s, he narrated a National Association of Broadcasters PSA featuring A Boy Wandering Around a Forest. After doing The Star and the Story, a rejected television pilot with Van Johnson, Cavett hosted a special, Where It's At, for Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear. In 1968, Cavett was hired by ABC to host This Morning.

Cavett has appeared as himself in various other television shows, such as The Odd Couple as well as serving as a host for Saturday Night Live in 1976. He also had a cameo role in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) and he played himself in the movie Power Play (1977).

Cavett appeared in Kate & Allie (1986), Cheers (1983), and in Robert Altman's Health (1980). In a cameo in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), as part of a dream sequence, he turned into Freddy Krueger and slashed his guest, Zsa Zsa Gabor, halfway through the interview. In Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988), he played a rare cameo as a character (Delia's agent) other than himself. Cavett often appeared on television quiz and game shows, including What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth, Password, and the $25,000 Pyramid. Cavett narrated the HBO documentary series Time Was. Each episode covered a decade, ranging from the 1920s to the 1970s. The show originally aired in November 1979 and ran for six months. Cavett hosted a documentary series for HBO in the early 1980s titled Remember When . that examined changes in American culture over time and he hosted HBO's monthly review series HBO Magazine.

In 1995, Cavett lent his voice for The Simpsons episode "Homie the Clown". He also appeared in footage from The Dick Cavett Show in Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump (1994), and Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (1995).

From November 2000 to January 2002, he played the narrator in a Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show. Cavett's signature tune has long been a trumpet version of the vocalise "Glitter and Be Gay" from Leonard Bernstein's Candide. The tune was first played at the midpoint of his ABC show, and later became the theme of his PBS show. The tune is also played as he walks on stage during guest appearances on other talk shows. In 2008, Cavett entered an Iraq war dispute with a New York Times blog entry criticizing General David Petraeus, stating "I can't look at Petraeus—his uniform ornamented like a Christmas tree with honors, medals, and ribbons—without thinking of the great Mort Sahl at the peak of his brilliance." Cavett went on to recall Sahl's expressed contempt for General William Westmoreland's display of medals, and criticized Petraeus for not speaking in plain language.

In 2011, Cavett appeared as a talking head in the Robert Weide two part documentary series Woody Allen: A Documentary for American Masters which aired on PBS. In December 2012, for their annual birthday celebration to "The Master", The Noel Coward Society invited Cavett as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, commemorating the 113th birthday of Sir Noel. Coward had made an appearance on Cavett's ABC late night television show in 1970 after being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in December 1969. He subsequently came to Los Angeles to appear in a production at Theatre 40, and delighted audiences by remaining onstage after the performance and doing a 10 minute monologue. In 2017, Cavett celebrated his 80th birthday at a private event in New York City, where guests included Woody Allen, Bob Balaban, Blythe Danner, Joy Behar, Carl Bernstein, Alec Baldwin, Katie Couric, and Steve Buscemi.

In January 2020, Cavett appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert promoting the new HBO special, Ali and Cavett: The Tales of the Tapes. There he talked about his career as a comedian and talk show host, as well as his relationship with Muhammad Ali.

In January 2020, when Cavett appeared as a guest on Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert stated that he was a huge admirer of Cavett, and had seen all of his talk shows. Colbert also stated, "People ask me who my influences are, and of course Johnny Carson, and of course David Letterman, but the one people don't automatically know is what a huge influence you were on me, the way you interviewed people was so honest, you had such interesting and unusual guests and asked such interesting and deep questions".

Cavett has co authored two books with Christopher Porterfield: Cavett (1974), his autobiography, and Eye on Cavett (1983). Cavett has also written a blog, published by The New York Times, entitled "Talk Show: Dick Cavett Speaks Again".

While taking a class at Yale School of Drama as an undergraduate, Cavett met his future wife, Caroline Nye McGeoy (known professionally as Carrie Nye), a native of Greenwood, Mississippi. After graduation, the two acted in summer theater in Williamstown, Massachusetts; and Cavett worked for two weeks in a local lumberyard to be able to buy an engagement ring. On June 4, 1964, they were married in New York. They remained married until Nye's death in 2006. In 2010, Cavett married author Martha Rogers in New Orleans, Louisiana. From this marriage, Cavett has two stepchildren. Rogers and Cavett reside in Ridgefield, Connecticut. They were formerly residents of Montauk, Long Island, and sold their estate there in 2021 for $23.6 million.

Year Title Role Notes 1972 VD Blues Himself/host 1977 Annie Hall Himself1978Power PlayHimself 1980 Simon Himself 1980 Health Himself 1981 Rich and Famous Himself Uncredited 1983 Parade of Stars Fred Allen 1987 A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors Himself 1988 After School Himself 1988 Moon over Parador Himself 1988 Beetlejuice Bernard 1991 Year of the Gun Ben Gershon 1994 Forrest Gump Himself 1995 Apollo 13 Himself 1996 Good Money Doug 1997 Elvis Meets Nixon Narrator 2000 Frequency Himself 2000 Behind the Seams Detective 2001 From The Ashes: The Life and Times of Tick Hall Himself 2005 Duane Hopwood Fred 2012 Excuse Me for Living Reverend Pilatus 2012 Driving Me Crazy Mr. Johnson 2014 River of Fundament Wake Guest