BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS LEO: PETER JENNINGS

Television presenter and journalist. Born July 29, 1938 in Toronto, Canada. Jennings joined ABC News in 1964, serving as anchor of the "ABC Evening News" from 1965 to 1968. He then served seven years as the bureau chief for Beirut, Lebanon, where he established the first American television news bureau in the Arab world. He was the foreign desk anchor for "World News Tonight" from 1978 to 1983.

Jennings was named anchor and senior editor of "World News Tonight" in 1983. In this capacity, he reported on such seminal world events as the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the fight for equality in South Africa and the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In 1990, he debuted a primetime show, "Peter Jennings Reporting," which focused on in-depth coverage of international news and domestic issues. The show earned numerous awards, including the 2004 Edward R. Morrow award for best documentary for "The Kennedy Assassination - Beyond Conspiracy."

Jennings has won several other awards, including 14 Emmys and two Peabodys. He received the Washington Journalism Review’s award for the country's best anchor for five consecutive years and Harvard University's Goldsmith Career Award for excellence in journalism. He is also the author of the best-selling books "The Century" and "In Search of America."

In April 2005, Jennings announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on August 7, 2005 at the age of 67 at his home in Manhattan. He is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, and two children.

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