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Alistair Cooke
1908-2004

Alistair Cooke, known to millions for his weekly BBC World Service "Letter to America" broadcasts and as the longtime host of public television's Masterpiece Theatre, has died at his home in New York City. He was 95.

Commenting on Cooke's enduring relationship with Masterpiece Theatre, Rebecca Eaton, veteran executive producer of the series, said, "My heart is aching. Alistair was a master broadcaster and a dear friend. He personified the special relationship between England and America. He was the perfect combination of journalist, social historian, gifted writer, and actor."

Widely considered one of America's favorite Britons, Cooke had for decades made his home in New York City. His weekly "Letter from America" on BBC Radio ran for 58 years; he missed only three broadcasts in some 3,000 programs, delivering his 2,869th and final "Letter" in March 2004. Cooke also was familiar to American audiences as host-writer-ringmaster of the 1950s CBS arts and sciences television series, Omnibus.

Cooke hosted Masterpiece Theatre for 22 seasons, beginning with the show's premiere in 1971 and continuing until he retired in 1992. Along the way, he wrote and delivered erudite commentary on many classic Masterpiece Theatre titles, from I, Claudius to Upstairs, Downstairs to The Jewel in the Crown. His debonair presence became synonymous with the popular series, and his social and historical commentary gave public television audiences a unique perspective on what they were about to see. Cooke often equated his role with that of a headwaiter "in the sense that I'm there to explain for interested customers what's on the menu and how the dishes were composed."

When first approached in 1970 to be the "commentating host" of a weekly television series composed of "the best TV adaptations of famous novels by the likes of Tolstoy, Thackeray and Hardy," Cooke was cool to the idea, telling producers "...there would be only one urgency in my life for the next two years: the filming of America, a documentary series intended to express my own historical view of the American experience, from the Indian settlements to our own time." He soon relented, and the rest is television history.

Columnist and author Russell Baker succeeded Cooke in the Masterpiece Theatre armchair in 1992. When asked if he'd like to follow the venerable Cooke as host, Baker replied, "I'd like to be the man who succeeds the man who succeeds Alistair Cooke."

Alistair Cooke was born Alfred Cooke in 1908 in Manchester, England, the son of an ironworker and lay preacher and an Irish immigrant mother. While at Cambridge University, where he received an honors degree in English literature, he legally changed his name to Alistair. In 1932, Cooke attended the Yale School of Drama on a fellowship and went on to produce plays for Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Society.

After several years in London as a BBC theater critic, he emigrated to America in 1937 and became a United States citizen in 1941. He served as foreign correspondent for the London Times and was then chief US correspondent for the Manchester Guardian for 24 years.

Speaking to the New York Times in 1988, Cooke discussed his longevity. "I think I've lasted because I found out that what people really wanted to know was anything that you notice in life," he said, "and especially things that touch everybody, touch a bishop and a farmer."

Cooke is survived by his wife, the portrait painter Jane White, two children, and two stepchildren.

March 30, 2004

Cooke's 1974 address to the House of Representatives