Bill Geddie, a legendary television news producer who was behind many of Barbara Walters’ most notable efforts, including longtime ABC daytime show “The View,” has died of coronary heart disease-related factors, his family has said. Variety. He was 68 years old.
“He was a big deal on TV, but at home he was an even larger than life husband and father,” Geddie’s family said in a statement. “He had a real love for television and entertainment. He tried everything and did it well – scriptwriting, recording podcasts, playing guitar, writing songs and enjoyed a wide range of music from country to jazz. His favorite band was the Beatles, and he never thought he’d get the chance to meet one of his personal heroes, Paul McCartney, in person, but his dream came true. The question was not who did he meet, but rather who did he not meet?
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Geddie served as executive producer of “The View” for 17 years, creating it with Walters, who was eager to create a new forum for women of different generations to discuss the issues of the day. Her connection to Walters, however, ran much deeper than that. The two were partners of ABC News Correspondent’s BarWall Productions for 25 years. Geddie would be executive producer, writer and director of the famous “Barbara Walters Specials” and “The 10 Most Fascinating People”. Walters died on December 30, 2022, at the age of 93.
Geddie worked with other popular hosts, serving as executive producer of ABC’s “Tamron Hall” during its 2018-20 season and even oversaw a 2016 celebrity interview special anchored by Megyn Kelly during her popular Fox News Channel run.
He also worked as a producer on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” and Eve wrote the screenplay for the 1996 sci-fi film Unforgettable, which starred Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino. His production company, Bill Geddie Productions, produced 60 Original Hours for the Discovery Channel.
Geddie “loved connecting with people, and we know we’re not the only ones who miss his encouraging way of positive advice. He did it with enthusiasm mixed with sarcasm,” his family said in the statement. His distinctive style of humor was filled with puns. He believed in honesty. He was a kind man of integrity who always wanted to do the right thing. He lived by example.
Geddie was born in San Antonio, Texas on July 17, 1955. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977, majoring in communications and film, and got his start in the news business polishing floors at KOCO, an ABC station. This menial task led to greater things. “When you polished the floors — that’s how television was informal back then — they let you direct the camera for local news,” he told Texas Monthly in 2007.
Geddie met his wife of 44 years, Barbara, while on a Valentine’s Day story assignment at KOCO. where she was a journalist on the air and he was a cameraman. She survives him, as do his two daughters, Allison and Lauren.
As a news cameraman and editor at WKYC, now affiliated with NBC in Cleveland, he won numerous awards, including six local Emmys and Regional Cameraman of the Year. He was one of the first to bear the title of “one-man-band” carrying his heavy camera and cumbersome tape recorder. Colleagues didn’t know it caused residual pain from having had polio as a child. Geddie wasn’t known for complaining. He hasHe would eventually become a producer when he joined Westinghouse’s PM Magazine in San Francisco. From there, he will move to New York, where he will join “GMA”.
Geddie has received four National Emmy Awards throughout his career. In addition to his lifetime achievement, he received two awards for stories with then-“GMA” host David Hartman. He was particularly proud of his history of searching for gorillas in Rwanda, where he was actually accused by a silverback. His fourth Emmy was for his work as executive producer of “The View” in 2003, and he also received three NAACP Image Awards for “The View.”
Geddie lived in Rancho Mirage, California with his wife, Barbara, where he golfed for charity and enjoyed playing at the Mission Hills Country Club of which he was a member. He knew a lot about movies and enjoyed watching them with his family, especially zombie horror movies and film noir.
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