Walter Winchell Net Worth

#Fact1Winchell carried on a long-standing feud with actress Ethel Barrymore who said, " It is a sad commentary that Walter Winchell is allowed to exist, and the worst of it is, not that he is published here [New York], but his stuff appears all over the country.2Caricatured in "The Woods are Full of Cuckoos" as Walter Finchell, and in "Speaking of the Weather" as Walter Snitchall.3In song, Winchell was often a cynical lyric reference. In the Mel Brooks Broadway musical "The Producers", later adapted to film as The Producers (2005), Leo Bloom (played by Matthew Broderick) sings, "I want to read my name in Winchell's column" during the song "I Want to Be A Producer"; the Cole Porter composition "Let's Fly Away," include the lines, "Let's fly away/ And find a land that's so provincial/ We'll never hear what Walter Winchell/ Might be forced to say." Pianist Buddy Greco's version of "The Lady Is A Tramp" features the lyric "why she reads Walter Winchell and understands every line." Winchell is also mentioned in Billy Joel's history-themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire".4Robert A. Heinlein coined the term "winchell" as a generic description for a politically active gossip columnist.5Winchell's final two years were spent as a recluse at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. He died of prostate cancer at the age of 74.6Winchell announced his retirement on February 5, 1969, citing the tragedy of his son Walter Jr.'s suicide as a major factor, while also noting the delicate health of his wife. Exactly one year later, she died at a Phoenix hospital while undergoing treatment for a heart condition.7Wife Rita was a former vaudeville partner. They separated within a few years, not divorcing until 1928. By this time he had been living for years with June Magee who had given birth to his child Walda. The couple had three children in all, and each marked by tragedy.8His wife's sister was the first wife of comic/writer Joey Adams, later the husband of NYPost Columnist Cindy Adams. (Source: Cindy Adams column, NYPost 9/17/06).9Coined the phrase, "America - love it or leave it."10Is portrayed by Stanley Tucci in Winchell (1998), by Joseph Bologna in Citizen Cohn (1992), by Joey Forman in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), by Craig T. Nelson in The Josephine Baker Story (1991), by Michael Townsend Wright in The Rat Pack (1998) and by Mark Zimmerman in Dash and Lilly (1999)11His son died at the age of 33 after shooting himself in the mouth. It was 36 years to the day after his daughter Gloria died.12Daughter Gloria died from pneumonia when she was nine. Winchell called it "the only tragedy in my life."13Daughter Gloria born and adopted c. 1924. Daughter Eileen Joan "Walda" Winchell born March 21, 1927. Son Walt, Jr. born July 26, 1935.14He was to star in Okay America! (1932) as himself in his own biopic, but he dropped out due to a busy schedule. Lew Ayres played him.15He never legally married June Magee, the mother of his children, because he had been introducing her as his wife for some time before the birth of their first child, Walda, and he did want anyone to know that Walda was illegitimate. He and June kept the secret successfully all their lives.16For years, Bob Hope wanted to produce and star in a biopic about Winchell, but he never got the project off the ground.17The columnist played by Burt Lancaster in the movie Sweet Smell of Success (1957) is somewhat loosely based on Winchell.18He was the most powerful and feared gossip columnist and radio commentator in America in the 1930s and 1940s. He briefly attempted a movie career in the 1930s. (In his youth he had been a minor Vaudeville singer.)19Walter Winchell's grave is located at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery, Phoenix, Arizona.20His daughter, Walda, was mentally unbalanced and was the only person at his graveside when he died.21His adopted daughter died of pneumonia.22His son committed suicide.23Born at 7:30am-EST

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