When news broke that beloved long-time TV host and entertainer Regis Philbin had
passed over the weekend at the age of 88, many people were shocked because, as Kelly Ripa put it, we just thought he would live forever. The host of
Live with Regis & Kathie Lee, and
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, on top of so many other things, had boundless energy, wit, fervor, and seemed to defy the aging process. On Monday, many of the current talk show hosts, both daytime and nighttime, dedicated a portion of their shows to honour the man who taught them how it’s done.Clearly full of emotion, Kelly Ripa, who hosted
Live with Regis for 10 years after Kathie Lee Gifford departed the show, spoke with current co-host Ryan Seacrest about hearing the sad news and how it affected her. “As people get older, you always know that some certain things are inevitable, and passing away is one of those things, but Regis is one of the people that we all believed, I think, would somehow figure out a way around the inevitable,” she said, fighting back tears.“They're just so very few people who are so iconic and so good at what they did and that is Regis Philbin,” Ryan added.
Long-time
Live co-host and close family friend Kathie Lee
spoke with the Today show about the last time she saw Regis two weeks earlier and how she sensed something was amiss. “I sensed much more fragility than I'd seen in him since the last time in January out in Los Angeles,” she explained, adding that when he came with his wife Joy to her house in Connecticut, she had made his favourite dish, Frutti di Mare, and they sat on her porch and laughed just as they always had.“We always just picked up right where we left off. I was with him 15 years but it's been 20 years since I left the show, and we became dear friends through the years since then [ …] we just had the best time. After they left, I just thought to myself, ‘Lord, is that the last time I'm going to see my friend?’ because he was failing. I could tell,” she said.[video_embed id='2002291']RELATED: Remembering Regis Philbin[/video_embed]Jimmy Fallon on
The Tonight Show could not pay tribute to Regis without mentioning that the legend actually got his start as a page on
The Tonight Show way back when Steve Allen was the host, but the gig that launched him into stardom was as the sidekick on
The Joey Bishop Show. “When I started to become famous on
Saturday Night Live, and people would ask, ‘What’s it like when people recognize you on the street?’ I would be like, ‘I feel like Regis,’” Jimmy mused. “And everyone understood that, there was no need for explanation, ‘cause he was the king of New York.”
The women of The View also made sure they each got a turn speaking on how Regis was a part of their lives and how he seemed to be the kind of entertainer that pleased everyone. He wasn’t a left-right entertainer, he was beloved by all. Joy Behar, who knew him the longest, shared how the man could spin any detail of his life into an entertaining story for his audience.“People don't realize how incredibly talented he was at what he did,” she began before launching into a story of running into Philbin at Equinox gym (he was famous for his love of fitness, even well into old age) and how he called out to Joy, “And he said to me, ‘Behar! I got nothing!’ meaning that he had no story [for his show], he had no anecdote, he just had to go out there, and make up something, and so I said, ‘You'll think of something Reg.’ He went on TV, and the story that he told was, ‘I ran into Behar at Equinox and I said to her, Behar I got nothing!’ I mean the guy could make a story out of nothing.”“He was really an incredible broadcaster,” she continued. “One of the great American broadcasters, I think, that we have. So rest in peace my dear friend. My heart is broken for us and for America.”[video_embed id='2002239']BEFORE YOU GO: Canadians love Regis Philbin[/video_embed]
