Edward Rudolph Bradley, Jr. (June 22, 1941 – November 9, 2006) was an
American journalist, best known for twenty-six years of award-winning work on the
CBS News television magazine
60 Minutes. During his earlier career he also covered the
fall of Saigon, was the first black television correspondent to cover the
White House, and anchored his own news broadcast,
CBS Sunday Night with Ed Bradley. He received several awards for his work including the Peabody, the
National Association of Black Journalists Lifetime Achievement Award, and nineteen
Emmy Awards.
Biography
Early life
Bradley was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents divorced when he was two, after which he was raised by his mother Gladys, who worked two jobs to make ends meet. Bradley, who was referred to with the childhood name of "Butch Bradley" was able to see his father, who was in the vending machine business and owned a restaurant in Detroit, in the summertime. When he was 9, his mother enrolled him in the Holy Providence School, an all-black Catholic boarding school run by the
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament at Cornwells Heights, Pennsylvania. He attended
Mount Saint Charles Academy, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and then another historically black school, Cheyney State College (now
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) in
Cheyney, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1964 with a degree in Education. His first job was teaching sixth grade at the William B. Mann Elementary School in Philadelphia's
Wynnefield community. While he was teaching, he moonlighted at the old
WDAS studios on Edgley Drive in
Philadelphia's
Fairmount Park, working for free and later, for minimum wage. He programmed music, read news, and covered basketball games.
Career
Bradley's introduction to news reporting came at
WDAS-FM during the
riots in
Philadelphia in the 1960s. In 1967, he landed a full-time job at the
CBS-owned
New York radio station
WCBS. In 1971, he moved to
Paris, France. Initially living off his savings, he eventually ran out of money, and began working as a
stringer for
CBS News, covering the
Paris Peace Talks. In 1972, he volunteered to be transferred to
Saigon to cover the
Vietnam War, as well as spending time in
Phnom Penh covering the war in
Cambodia. It was there that he was injured by a
mortar round, receiving
shrapnel wounds to his back and arm.
In 1974, he moved to
Washington, D.C., and was promoted to covering the
Carter campaign in 1976. He then became CBS News'
White House correspondent (the first black White House television correspondent) until 1978, when he was invited to move to "CBS Reports", where he served as principal correspondent until 1981. In that year,
Walter Cronkite departed as anchor of the
CBS Evening News, and was replaced by the
60 Minutes correspondent
Dan Rather, leaving an opening on the program which was filled by Bradley.
Over the course of Bradley's twenty-six years on
60 Minutes, he did over 500 stories, covering nearly every possible type of news, from "heavy" segments on war, politics, poverty and corruption, to lighter biographical pieces, or stories on sports, music, and cuisine. Among others, he interviewed
Howard Stern,
Lawrence Olivier,
Subcomandante Marcos,
Timothy McVeigh,
Michael Jackson,
Mick Jagger, the 92-year-old
George Burns, and
Michael Jordan, as well as conducting the first television interview of
Bob Dylan in 20 years. Some of his quirkier moments included playing
blackjack with the blind
Ray Charles, interviewing a Soviet general in a Russian sauna, and having a practical joke played on him by
Muhammad Ali. Bradley's favorite segment on
60 Minutes was when as a 42-year-old correspondent, he interviewed the 64-year-old singer
Lena Horne. He said, "If I arrived at the
pearly gates and
Saint Peter said, 'What have you done to deserve entry?' I'd just say, 'Did you see my Lena Horne story??'"
On the show, Bradley was known for his sense of style, and was the first (and thus far, the only) male correspondent to regularly wear an
earring on the air. He had his left ear
pierced in 1986 and says he was inspired to do it after receiving encouragement from
Liza Minnelli following an interview with the actress.
Personal life
Ed Bradley in the
Khyber Pass, from a picture that he kept in his office. He said that he was thinking, "Would you believe this, little Butch Bradley from West Philly, standing in the Khyber? Alexander the Great came through here! ... It was wonderful. That made it worth everything."
Bradley never had children, but was married to
Haitian-born artist Patricia Blanchet, whom he had met at a museum where she was working as a tour guide. Despite the age difference, he pursued her, and they dated for ten years before marrying in a private ceremony in
Woody Creek, Colorado, where they had a home. Bradley also maintained two homes in
New York one in
East Hampton, and the other in
New York City.
Bradley was known for loving all kinds of music, but was especially a
jazz music enthusiast. He hosted the
Peabody Award-winning
Jazz at Lincoln Center on
National Public Radio for over a decade until just before his death. A big fan of the
Neville Brothers, Bradley performed on stage with the bunch, and was known as "the fifth Neville brother". Bradley was also friends with
Jimmy Buffett, and would often perform onstage with him, under the name "Teddy." Bradley was of limited musical ability and did not have an extensive repertoire, but would usually draw smiles by singing the 1951 classic by
Billy Ward and the Dominoes, "
Sixty Minute Man."
In the company of his longtime friend
Jimmy Buffett, Bradley died on November 9, 2006 at
Mount Sinai Hospital in
Manhattan of complications from lymphocytic
leukemia. He was 65 years old.
Legacy
Bradley was honored in 2007 with a traditional jazz funeral procession at the New Orleans Jazzfest, of which he was a large supporter. The parade, which took place on the first day of the six day festival, circled the fairgrounds and included two brass bands.
Columnist
Clarence Page wrote:
Bradley had been a season ticket holder to the
New York Knicks for over 20 years. On
November 13,
2006 they honored him with a moment of silence. On the
60 Minutes program after Bradley's death, his longtime friend
Wynton Marsalis closed the show with a solo trumpet performance, playing some of the music Bradley loved best.
Awards
- 2007, Bradley posthumously won the 66th annual George Foster Peabody award for his examination of the Duke University rape case.
