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Marilyn Beck

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The Resume

    (December 17, 1928-May 31, 2014)
    Born in Chicago, Illinois
    Birth name was Hanna Marilyn Mohr
    Syndicated Hollywood Gossip columnist
    Formerly a regular on local (KABC) and national television
    Formerly a regular on local Los Angeles radio station KFI
    Named Sheilah Graham's successor for the North American Newspaper Alliance (1970)
    Began a Hollywood column in the New York Times Special Features (1972)
    Host of NBC's 'Marilyn Beck’s Hollywood Outtakes' specials (1977-78)
    Became affiliated with Tribune Media Services, later Creators Syndicate (1980; 1990)
    Featured Hollywood interviewer on the syndicated 'PM Magazine' show (1983-88)
    Authored the Grapevine column in 'TV Guide' (1989-92)
    Regular on E! Entertainment Tonight's 'The Gossip Show' (1993-99)
    Author of 'Marilyn Beck's Hollywood' (1972), 'Only Make Believe' (1988), and 'Unfinished Lives... What If?' (1995)

Why she might be annoying:

    She had a long-running feud with Robert Blake.
    She was a protégé of Hedda Hopper-wannabe gossip Sheilah Graham.
    She joked about retiring and becoming a rancher because 'if there’s one thing I know, it’s bullshit.'
    She took a dare to demonstrate a pair of shoes she owned which converted into roller skates while backstage at the Academy Awards.
    Tammy Bruce claimed that as soon as Beck learned of Brenda Benet's 1982 suicide that she called the apartment she shared, less out of concern for her than to find out whether she needed to stop their interview from airing.
    She was known for her invasive nosiness during interviews, e.g. giving Sylvester Stallone the third-degree about his divorce, asking Richard Dreyfuss about his arrest for possession, pressing Bob Hope about his finances, etc.
    She asked Barbara Walters during an interview 'you say when you get a big interview that you've slain a dragon, would you say that I've slain a dragon getting you?' (Walters replied, 'you and I know that I'm no dragon').

Why she might not be annoying:

    She frequently worked with George Burns.
    She was a favorite interviewer of Richard Burton in the early 60s.
    She maintained a combined readership of 25 million over an extended period of time.
    Dick Van Dyke chose to give her his first interview when he went public with his alcoholism.
    Michael Landon chose to give her his first interview after revealing his battles with pill dependence.
    She won honors from the Los Angeles City Council, the Southern California Motion Picture Council and the ICG Publicists Guild of America.
    She was one of the first journalists to cover the jet set drug culture in Aspen, Colorado after the 1976 shooting of skier Spider Sabich by singer Claudine Longet.
    She was at the forefront of reporting during the Roman Polanski scandal and court case of the 1970s.
    She was a pioneer in the use of internet reporting, answering entertainment-related reader questions for Prodigy online as early as the late 80s.
    She innovated live online reporting with user questions being relayed to winners at the Academy Awards, starting with the 1994 Oscars show.
    She was one of the first public figures to make use of regular on-camera streamed video reports on the web, starting in 2000.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 13 Votes: 15.38% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 37 Votes: 83.78% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 21 Votes: 47.62% Annoying