Barbara Walters died Friday at the age of 93, but her brilliance and tenacity in many of her iconic interviews will live on.
The legendary journalist sat alongside an impressive array of entertainment stars and world leaders in a career that stretches back to the 1950s.
Walters managed to nail interview subjects known for being at the other end of the questions, including Oprah Winfrey, and conducted key interviews with notable figures including Fidel Castro and the Shah of Iran.
But the trailblazer also earned a reputation for asking unnecessarily probing questions and ignoring her guests’ feelings in some of her more notorious seating areas.
Legend: Barbara Walters has had a number of iconic interviews with politicians and entertainment stars over the course of her decades-long career. The journalist, who died on Friday at the age of 93, is seen with Oprah Winfrey in 2006
One of Walters’ most celebrated interviews was with Winfrey, who had done more than her share of memorable interviews prior to the 2010 meeting.
The veteran interview questioned Winfrey about rumors that she was a lesbian who had stalked her for years, which clearly angered the TV host.
After Walters asked Winfrey about the rumours, she firmly denied them.
“I’m not a lesbian. I’m not even some kind of lesbian,” she said. “And the reason it irritates me is because it means someone has to think I’m lying. That’s number one. Number two: why do you want to hide it? That’s not how I live my life.’
Winfrey even shed a few tears in chat after Walters asked her about her longtime friend, Gayle King.
“She’s the mother I never had. She is the sister that everyone would wish for. She’s the friend everyone deserves,” Oprah gushed. ‘I don’t know a better person.’
Opening: During an interview with Winfrey in 2010, Walters quizzed her about lesbian rumors and made her burst into tears while serenading her friend Gayle King; Pictured in 1998
But Walter’s inquisitive questions weren’t always appreciated by her guests, and some found her sexist and misogynistic at times.
Brooke Shields spoke to Walters during a famous 1981 interview in which the veteran journalist asked the young teenager to flaunt her body and figure for her viewers.
“She asked me for my measurements and asked me to stand up,” Shields recalled in November while appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show.
“And I stood up and she was like comparing herself to this little girl. And I thought, “That’s not right. I don’t understand what that is.”
She added that she was “just dazing and just smiling” but felt “so taken advantage of in so many ways.”
Last year, Shields said the interview – which was taped shortly after her famous Calvin Klein Jeans ad debuted – was “virtually criminal” and “not journalism” during an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast last year.
However, in her interview with Barrymore, Shields also had kind words to say about Walters’ status in the world of journalism, even if she didn’t think she was given a fair chance.
Invasive: Brooke Shields has a less than positive experience. She complained years later about how, as a teenager in 1981, Walters asked for her measurements and made her stand up to show her figure; Seen in New York in 2016
Bad feeling: “I thought, ‘That’s not right. I don’t understand what that is.
Too soon: In an interview in 2000, Walters urged Ricky Martin to say whether he was gay or not, but he later said he felt “hurt” about the questioning. He came out later in 2010; seen on The View in 2011
Ricky Martin had a similarly awkward interview with Walters in 2000 when she repeatedly asked him about his sexuality in the face of rumors he was gay, which he eventually confirmed by exposing himself in 2010.
Coming out in 2000 meant drastically different perspectives for the singer-actor, but Walters still pushed him to answer the personal question.
“I think that sexuality is something that everyone should deal with in their own way and that’s all I have to say about it,” the Latin singer replied.
But View’s co-host didn’t let up.
“You know, you could stop these rumors. You could say, as many artists have done, “Yes, I’m gay,” or you could say, “No, I’m not.”
Last year, Martin told People that he “felt hurt” after Walters asked him about his sexuality because he “just wasn’t ready to come out” at the time.
World leaders: Walters famously traveled to Cuba to interview Fidel Castro, who let her hold his gun while he drove her around the island in his jeep. After her interview, he made her a grilled cheese sandwich
Among the 20/20 co-host’s most famous interviews with world leaders was her 1977 interview with Fidel Castro in Cuba.
In addition to the occasionally testy conversation, Walters described how Castro drove them around Cuba in a jeep. She even had to carry his gun when they crossed streams so she wouldn’t get wet on the ground.
After the sit-down, which ended around 1 a.m., Castro concluded by making Walters a grilled cheese sandwich from his kitchen, according to Harper’s Bazaar.
The two would conduct several more interviews over the following years.
Digging deep: Walters got Mike Tyson’s then-wife Robin Givens to confess to his physical abuse in 1988. A month after the recording, she filed for divorce
In a 1988 interview with Mike Tyson and his then-wife Robin Givens, Walters demonstrated her ability to extract extraordinary confessions from her guests.
She rocked the conversation when she asked Givens, “Did he hit you?”
Givens paused before replying: “He shakes, he pushes, he swings. Sometimes I think he’s trying to scare me… It’s only recently that I’ve been scared.”
Tyson had a stone face during the confession, but after the interview ended, “he got angry and threw a chair,” according to ABC News.
As a result, Tyson filed for divorce just a month after the interview.
Fighting back: Amy Schumer didn’t appreciate Walter’s questions about fake orgasms and tried to turn the tables with the same question; seen in 2015
Walters’ insistent questions didn’t go so well in a 2015 interview with comedian Amy Schumer, when she asked the comedian if she ever “fakes orgasms.”
Undeterred, she turned the tables on Walters and asked her, “Have you ever faked it?”
“I’m not going to tell you,” Walters replied, adding, “because I have this image of myself that I’m dignified and stuff like that.”
But Schumer said she also considers herself “worthy,” noting a recent conference she attended to advocate for new gun safety legislation.
“I gotta tell you, interviewing you isn’t exactly like interviewing Henry Kissinger,” Walters retorted.
Leading Ladies: Among Walter’s most popular interviews was a series of conversations with Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn, the first of which took place in 1981. She was mocked for asking the actress what kind of “tree” she was; seen in 1987
Among Walters’ most popular interviews was a series of chats with Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn, the first of which took place in 1981.
During that initial conversation, Hepburn noted that she felt “very powerful” at this point in her life and career before comparing herself to a tree, inspiring one of Walters’ most ridiculed questions.
“What kind of tree are you? Now if you think you’re a tree,’ she asked.
Despite the absurdity of the question, Hepburn played along.
“Hopefully I’m not an elm with elm disease, because then I’ll wither,” she replied, laughing. “Everyone wants to be an oak tree. That’s very strong, very pretty.”
Start of a wonderful friendship: Hepburn was brave and said she didn’t want to “be an elm tree with Dutch elm disease because then I’ll wither”; seen in 1981
Walters’ death was announced by ABC News on Friday night.
Disney CEO Bob Iger shared the news in a tweet in which he called her a “pioneer”.
“Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself,” he wrote. “She was a unique reporter who received many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state to the biggest celebrities and sports icons.”
“I’ve had the pleasure of calling Barbara a colleague for more than three decades, but more importantly, I’ve been able to call her a dear friend. She will be missed by all of us at The Walt Disney Company and we send our deepest condolences to her daughter Jacqueline,” Iger said in a statement on Friday.
Her cause of death was not immediately released.
The journalist began her career back in the 1950s and became the network’s first female news anchor in 1976.
Her last on-air interview was with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2015, though she’s kept a low profile in her final years.