SUSSKIND, David Howard

(b. 19 December 1920 in New York City; d. 22 February 1987 in New York City), energetic producer of television programs, theatrical plays, and feature films, best known to the public during the 1960s as a controversial talk-show host and show business maverick.

Susskind, the son of Benjamin Susskind, an insurance sales agent, and Frances Lear Susskind, a homemaker, was one of three children. Benjamin Susskind provided a comfortable life for the family in Brookline, Massachusetts, and instilled in his son a strong desire for learning. Susskind was a straight-A student in high school. His natural intelligence enabled him to excel without spending long hours studying, which also freed him to engage in extracurricular activities. He worked on the school paper, belonged to the debate team, and wrote a column every week for the home-town newspaper. Susskind enrolled at the University of Wisconsin following his graduation from Brookline High School in 1938. Within a year, on 23 August 1939, the eighteen-year-old Susskind married seventeen-year-old Phyllis Briskin. The couple had three children. Susskind transferred to Harvard University in 1940 to study political science and received a B.S. degree in 1942, graduating with honors. Susskind then served in the U.S. Navy as a communications officer during World War II, stationed in the Pacific.

Upon military discharge in April 1946, Susskind accepted a job with the publicity department of Warner Bros. in New York City, where he quickly ascertained the importance of talent agents in show business. Being a talent agent was a profession he enjoyed, and after a short stint with Warner Bros., he went to work for Century Artists, an agency representing star performers. When the company went out of business, Susskind entered a partnership with another agent, Al Levy, and they formed Talent Associates in 1948, handling primarily writers and directors. Talent Associates evolved into a creative organization that packaged and also produced television programming, films, and plays.

Live drama on television and Susskind's productions in the genre reached their pinnacles in 1957. During every week of that television season, a Susskind-produced show appeared on the air. By the late 1950s, however, the business of New York television production began to shift to Hollywood. Westerns and action-adventure series recorded on film were replacing live drama. It was an alarming trend to Susskind, who became a vociferous critic, angrily declaring, "TV is going down the drain like dirty water."

Susskind's reputation as an iconoclast was bolstered when he began hosting the syndicated talk show Open End in 1958. Open End was a weekly program of undetermined length. In other words, the show stayed on the air for as long as the host thought the conversation interesting. Open End attracted big-name and powerful guests from all walks of life, and Susskind proved to be a tireless inquisitor. In May 1960, for instance, he interrogated Vice President Richard Nixon for nearly four continuous hours. Often, though, his interviews sparked controversy, as when he interviewed Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev during his 1960 visit to the United States. Critics complained that Susskind gave the Russian leader a propaganda platform. Throughout the 1960s Open End was a sophisticated forum on culture and politics. America's racial crisis, the war in Vietnam, and the sexual revolution were frequent subjects.

Susskind's short, curly hair had started to gray by the time he reached his forties. His disdain for sleep was apparent in the puffy bags under his eyes, which tended to dominate his face. Even though he was not overweight, Susskind's compact stature gave the impression of stockiness, about which he was sensitive. The talk show remained his avocation while Susskind continued to be a full-time producer. Among his most critically acclaimed projects in the 1960s were the feature films A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). The debut of East Side/West Side in 1963, a dramatic series produced by Talent Associates, was a television landmark—representative of the kind of experimentation that marked the decade. Although the series lasted only a single season, East Side/West Side is a significant program in television history because of its socially controversial subject matter—such as poverty, prejudice, drug addiction, abortion, and capital punishment—and the casting of the black actress Cicely Tyson in a recurring lead role.

The stark realism of the series disconcerted viewers and sometimes made them uncomfortable. They did not know what to make of a hero (the social worker Neil Brock, played by George C. Scott) who often was dazed by moral complexities. For the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the series was a bust; in fact, one-third of the advertising time went unsold. A few years later Susskind reflected on the ratings problems of East Side/West Side: "A gloomy atmosphere for commercial messages, an integrated cast, and a smaller, Southern station lineup, all of these things coming together spelled doom for the show. I'm sorry television wasn't mature enough to absorb it and like it and live with it." Susskind's most celebrated special of the 1960s was an innovative television presentation of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. With Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock as Willy and Linda Loman, the production was shot in five, uninterrupted sequences staged in the round on a 360-degree set. The CBS broadcast was hailed as a video masterpiece.

Following a long separation, Susskind and his first wife divorced in 1966. That same year, on 22 April, he married the Canadian television personality Joyce Davidson, with whom he had one child. Open End was retitled The David Susskind Show in 1967, and the format changed to a standard, two-hour program taped before a studio audience. By then Susskind was a fixture in American popular culture. His flamboyant language skills and feisty demeanor were the stuff of parody. In the prehistoric animated town of Bedrock, for example, the Flintstones' local TV station carried David Rockkind—a talk-show host who was never at a loss for words.

Throughout the 1970s and well into the 1980s Susskind continued to develop prestige programming. Among his later projects were the acclaimed miniseries Eleanor and Franklin and nine Hallmark Hall of Fame specials. Suss-kind and his second wife were divorced in 1986, and he died the following year of heart failure. Susskind won twenty-seven Emmy awards and three Peabody awards over the course of his long television career. In 1988 he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. In 1990 the Producers Guild of America presented the first David Susskind Lifetime Achievement Award.

Susskind was a difficult man. Even people who loved and admired him acknowledged his mercurial personality. Still, he was embraced by performers, artists, and political figures, who respected his commitment to high standards of culture and thoughtful conversation. Susskind believed that America could be uplifted through television. His legacy is a remarkable body of work, especially that produced during the 1960s, and an unrelenting quest for excellence.

The personal and professional papers of Susskind, including correspondence, scripts, production materials, and clippings, are housed at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. No full-length biographies of Susskind had been produced by 2002, but many contemporaneous articles examine his career, including Thomas B. Morgan, "David Susskind: Television's Newest Spectacular," Esquire (Aug. 1960). For an examination of his contributions in a historical context, see two articles by Mary Ann Watson, "Open End: A Mirror of the 1960s," Film and History 21, nos. 2 and 3 (May and Sept. 1991): 70–76, and "Continental Rift: David Susskind's Futile Fight to Keep TV Drama in New York," Television Quarterly 25, no. 4 (1992): 55–50. An obituary is in the New York Times (23 Feb. 1987).

Mary Ann Watson