Barbara Walters, the groundbreaking political journalist who interviewed presidents from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, died Friday. She was 93.
Walters’ death was announced by her longtime employer, ABC News. Her cause of death was not reported.
“Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said. “She was a one-of-a-kind reporter who landed many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state and leaders of regimes to the largest celebrities and sports icons.”
Walters was one of the first women to establish herself as a heavy hitting broadcast journalist in an industry dominated by men.
Though she got her start on television with the “Today” show in the 1960s, Walters began her journalism career in 1951 after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville.
During her prolific career, she won 12 Emmy Awards, started “The View” from scratch in 1997 and interviewed every U.S. President from Nixon to Obama. She even interviewed Donald Trump and Joe Biden, though before either man became president. Walters retired in 2015.
