Brian Linehan
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Brian Linehan (September 3, 1944 - June 4, 2004) was a Canadian television host who hailed from Hamilton, Ontario. Linehan was best known for his celebrity interviews. He rarely divulged his real age. Sometimes Linehan's year of birth would appear as 1943 or even 1944. Referred to as the "Charlie Rose of Canada." Brian's estranged Irish father, Les, worked at one of the local steel mills, Dofasco. His Serbian mother, Sava (nee Kotur), was later remarried to a post World War II Serb immigrant, Jovan Rodic Sr. He too, was a steel worker.
Linehan was renowned for his composure, interview skills and meticulous research, often leading to in-depth questions that could last for minutes. Some of his guests responded to his questions by saying, "How did you know that?" His interviewing style was parodied on SCTV by Martin Short, as Brock Linehan.
He was first the host of City Lights, a program produced by Citytv in Toronto, and syndicated throughout Canada and United States, that lasted from 1973 to 1989.
After taking some time off, he spent the early 1990s doing publicity interviews in Hollywood. In the late 1990s he hosted a second show entitled Linehan, which was produced for CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario. He was also a long-time entertainment reporter on CFRB radio.
Linehan was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2001 and died in 2004.
