’60 Minutes’ news commentator Andy Rooney died on November 4, 2011 in a New York City hospital at the age of 92, CBS News is reporting. The news writer, known for inventing his humorous TV essays, suffered from complications after minor surgery. The news of his death comes a month after he announced that he would no longer be appearing regularly on the popular news magazine.
Rooney spent more than 60 years at CBS, first as a writer and producer for entertainment and news programming. After 30 years behind the camera, he became a television personality, a role he never became comfortable in. He said he preferred being known as an author of books and a national newspaper column.
But Rooney is most remembered for delivering his infamous essays at the end of each ’60 Minutes’ episode. The essays focused on major news topics, including the grain embargo against the Soviet Union, and life’s unspoken truths, including products that didn’t seem to work, and why people don’t talk in elevators. “I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn’t realize they thought,” the writer told the Associated Press in 1998.
Of Rooney’s death, Jeff Fager, the chairman of CBS News and the executive producer of ’60 Minutes,’ said “It’s a sad day at ’60 Minutes’ and for everybody at CBS News. It’s hard to imagine not having (Andy) around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms. We will miss him very much.”
Written by: Karen Benardello
