Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE (20 November 1908 - 30 March 2004) was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992. After holding the job for 22 years, and having worked in television for 42 years, Cooke retired in 1992, although he co...
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Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE (20 November 1908 - 30 March 2004) was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992. After holding the job for 22 years, and having worked in television for 42 years, Cooke retired in 1992, although he continued to present Letter from America until shortly before his death. He was the father of author and folk singer John Byrne Cooke.
Born in Salford, Lancashire, Britain, to a Methodist father and an Irish mother as Alfred Cooke, he legally added Alistair to his name when he was 22. He was educated at Blackpool Grammar School, and awarded a scholarship to Jesus College, where he gained an honours degree (2:1) in English. He was heavily involved in the arts, was editor of Granta, and set up The Mummers, Cambridge's first co-sex theatre group,...
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