Veteran Broadcast Journalist & ’60 Minutes’ Correspondent Mike Wallace Dies at Age 93

Mike Wallace, veteran broadcast journalist most known as being a ’60 Minutes’ correspondent has died at the age of 93.  Wallace was a correspondent on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” for 38 years since its premiere in 1968 and retired in 2006. He passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, CT. Rest in Peace.

Mike Wallace 1918-2012

Veteran broadcast journalist Mike Wallace has died, according to CBS News.

He was 93 years old and had been in declining health in recent years. A cause of death has not been released yet.

This morning, “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer announced his death on the program.

Schieffer said Wallace died Saturday night at a care facility in New Haven, Conn., where he had lived in the past several years.

From CBS News regarding the death of Mike Wallace.

“It is with tremendous sadness that we mark the passing of Mike Wallace. His extraordinary contribution as a broadcaster is immeasurable and he has been a force within the television industry throughout its existence. His loss will be felt by all of us at CBS,” said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO, CBS Corporation.

“All of us at CBS News and particularly at 60 Minutes owe so much to Mike. Without him and his iconic style, there probably wouldn’t be a 60 Minutes. There simply hasn’t been another broadcast journalist with that much talent. It almost didn’t matter what stories he was covering, you just wanted to hear what he would ask next. Around CBS he was the same infectious, funny and ferocious person as he was on TV. We loved him and we will miss him very much,” said Jeff Fager, chairman CBSNews and executive producer of 60 Minutes.

Remembering Mike Wallace:

More from MSNBC remembering Mike Wallace for those classic lines he became known for during interviews, “Forgive me for asking …” or responded to a dubious answer with “Oh, come on.”

Wallace interviewed every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy – with the exception of George W. Bush – and dozens of other world leaders like Yasser Arafat, Ayatollah Khomeini and Deng Xiaoping.

Other interview subjects included everyone from Malcolm X to singer Janis Joplin, Martin Luther King Jr. to television star Johnny Carson and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

When Wallace prefaced a question with “Forgive me for asking …” or responded to a dubious answer with “Oh, come on,” “60 Minutes” viewers knew he was about to get tough. His sometimes-abrasive manner resulted in the nickname “Mike Malice,” and some viewers will always remember him as the man who made diva Barbra Streisand cry on camera.

In a 2006 retrospective of his “60 Minutes” career, Wallace summed up his interviewing technique as: “Let’s ask the questions that might be on the minds of the people looking in … ‘If I were there in that chair where Wallace is, here’s what I would want to know.’”