Talk show host Tom Snyder dies at 71
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran talk show host Tom Snyder, whose idiosyncratic interviewing style bemused and annoyed late-night TV viewers during three decades, has died after a long battle with leukemia, associates said on Monday. He was 71.
The former host of NBC’s “Tomorrow” show and CBS’ “The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder” died on Sunday evening at his home in San Francisco, said his longtime agent and lawyer Ed Hookstratten.
“Tom was a true broadcaster, a rare thing,” said Peter Lassally, executive producer of Snyder’s CBS show, in a statement released by the network. “When he was on the air, he made the camera disappear. It was just you and him, in a room together, having a talk.”
Comedian David Letterman, who took over Snyder’s time slot when Snyder left NBC and later hired Snyder to follow his own show after moving to CBS, said: “Tom was the very thing that all broadcasters long to be — compelling.”
Snyder gained national fame for hosting “Tomorrow” in NBC’s post-”Tonight Show” spot from 1973 to 1982, with some of his more memorable guests including former Beatle John Lennon, Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and convicted killer Charles Manson.
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