The host of 'Family Feud' died after being diagnosed with cancer.
Colin Lionel Emm was born on 20 November 1932 and died on 2 June 2012 in the United States.As a panelist on Match Game, as well as the original and third host of Family Feud, he was well known for playing Peter Newkirk in Hogan's Heroes.
Colin Lionel Emm was born in Gosport, Hampshire, England, on November 20, 1932 to Arthur and Josephine Lindsay.His father drove a van and his mother worked in a factory.During World War II, he and his brother were evacuated as children to escape the bombing of England's major port cities in the south.In a radio interview with Hogan's Heroes co-star Bob Crane, he said that he only attended school for two years because of this experience.[5]
He ran away from home at the age of 14 to join the British Merchant Navy, where he earned almost $5,000 in shipboard matches.During 1950 and 1951, he made a number of passages fromSouthampton to ports of call including Nassau, The Bahamas, Havana, and New York.Following his discharge from the merchant service, Emm began pursuing a comedy career using the stage name DickieDawson and later legally adopted the name RichardDawson.[8]
He began his career as a stand-up comedian in England.His first television appearance may have been on 21 June 1954, when he was 21 and was featured on the Benny Hill showcase.He had at least four appearances on the radio program, including two spots on How Do You Do and the Midday Music Hall, which was advertised as a "friendly get-together of Commonwealth artists."He and Diana Dors appeared on A to Z: D, a program featuring entertainers with names beginning with the letter D.[9]
On January 8, 1963, an audience member seated next to Jack appeared on The Jack Benny Program, season 13, episode 15.In the same year that she made a guest appearance on The Dick Van Dyke Show as "Racy" Tracy Rattigan, she was the summer replacement host for the Alan Brady Show.He was credited with that name.[13]
George Segal played 1st Recon paratrooper Captain Weaver in the movie King Rat, in which he was sent to liberate allied POWs in a Japanese prison.He moved to Los Angeles.He was a character in the television show Hogan's Heroes.From 1966 to 1971 Peter Newkirk.He had a small role in the movie." His Children's Parade" and "Apples & Oranges" were included in a 45rpm single that was released a year later.Private Hugh McDonald was played by Dawson in The Devil's Brigade.
Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes, Dawson was a regular panelist on the game show Can You Top This?In 1970 I joined the cast of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
Mark Goodson signed Dawson to appear as a regular on Match Game '73 after the cancellation of Laugh-In.The panelist for Goodson's revival of I've Got a Secret, who had already served a year as a panelist, proved to be a solid and funny player, and was the frequent choice of contestants to participate in the Head-To-Head Match portion of the show.He played one week of shows in the top center seat of the panel on Match Game.
Dawson wanted to host a show of his own due to the popularity of Match Game.Goodson began development on Family Feud in 1975, when he was one of Match Game's regular panelists.The agent of the host demanded that he be considered as host, even threatening not to show his wit on Match Game if he was overlooked.Goodson hired Dawson to host Feud after seeing his talents as a host.The ratings of Family Feud surpassed those of Match Game in 1977.The introduction of the "Star Wheel" made it difficult for him to be selected for the Head-To-Head Match portion of Match Game's "Super Match" bonus round.After he left Match Game, his spot on the panel was filled with many other stars, most notably his best friend Bob Barker, who was the host of The Price is Right.
The nickname "The Kissing Bandit" was given to the man who kissed the female contestants on Family Feud.Television executives tried to stop him from kissing.He asked viewers to vote on the matter after receiving criticism for the practice.The majority of the 200,000 responses were in favor of kissing.On the 1985 finale, he explained that he kissed contestants for love and luck, something his mother did when he was a child.[16]
During 1979 and 1980, Dawson hosted 14 times for Tonight Show host Johnny Carson.Before it was known how long Carson's tenure would last (Carson would host the show until 1992), Dawson was a contender for the role of Tonight Show host, a move that he was seriously considering during 1979.Of the few Tonight Show episodes that did not air on the night that they were intended, Dawson was a guest host on two of them.During one of these, actress Della Reese had a near-fatal aneurysm and the rest of the episode was canceled.Due to the fact that it would have aired the same night as the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 in Chicago, the monologue about the danger of flying on airplanes was replaced with a rerun.The episode aired several weeks later.
In 1987's The Running Man, he parodied his TV persona, portraying the evil, egotistical game-show host.The reviewers gave him rave reviews for his performance.Roger Ebert, who gave the film a thumbs down, wrote, "As a character who always seems three-quarters drunk, he chain-smokes his way through backstage planning sessions and then pops up in front of the cameras as a cauldron of false joy."The film's private joke is that he is not much different than most genuine game show hosts.[20]
The revival of the classic game show You Bet Your Life was to air on NBC in 1988, but the network declined to pick it up.He tried to host the syndicated game show Trump Card in 1990, but it went to Jimmy Cefalo.
Ray Combs was fired from Family Feud in 1994 because the show's ratings were going down.The final season of the show was the official second run.Family Feud was out of production for four years because of poor ratings.He did not kiss the female contestants because of a promise he made to his daughter to kiss only her mother.The last episode aired on May 26, 1995.In 1999, he was asked to make a special appearance on the first episode of the current version of Family Feud, but he turned it down and has no further involvement with the show.[21]
With his first wife, actress Diana Dors, he had two sons, Mark and Gary, who were born in London and Los Angeles, respectively.He had four children.[25]