Bradley, Ed 1941-2006 (Edward Rudolph Bradley)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 22, 1941, in Philadelphia, PA; died of complications related to leukemia, November 9, 2006, in New York, NY. Journalist, broadcaster, and author. Bradley was an Emmy Award-winning television journalist best known for his many years on the news magazine program 60 Minutes. A 1964 graduate of what is now Cheney University of Pennsylvania, he was an education major. His first job was teaching sixth-grade students in Philadelphia. Bradley already had the broadcasting bug by this time. In college, a radio broadcaster friend of his had let him give a one-minute newscast on the local station. After that, the young Bradley was completely enamored of broadcast journalism. He worked at station WDAS-FM for free while teaching, but a story he did about a riot convinced station owners to hire him full time. Bradley worked nights as a radio jazz disc jockey until 1967, when the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) hired him to work in New York City. He gained experience as a news reporter there, until 1971, when he quit his job and moved to Paris, France, to try to write a novel. Fiction, however, did not prove to be his forte, and he never completed the book. Fortunately, CBS asked him to work for them in Paris as a correspondent. Two years later, his producers sent him to Saigon, where he covered the Vietnam War. Wounded in a mortar attack, he returned to the United States and covered stories in Washington, DC. Bradley went back to Vietnam in 1975, later gaining national attention for his reporting on Vietnamese boat people and refugees. Now a regular CBS journalist, Bradley was a correspondent in the nation's capital through 1978, when he was named principal correspondent for the television program CBS Reports. He also anchored CBS Sunday Night News from 1976 to 1981. His calm and professional on-air demeanor earned him a job at 60 Minutes in 1981, where he would remain until his death. During his years at 60 Minutes, the seemingly unflappable Bradley won the respect of his peers, as well as an amazing nineteen Emmy Awards. He covered stories ranging from politics and celebrity interviews to sports and human interest topics. Although he was the most prominent African American journalist on television, Bradley disliked being categorized by his race; instead, he strove to be a model of professionalism in all aspects of his work. Bradley did not even desire sympathy for his illness; although his colleagues knew of his 2003 heart surgery, he told no one he was suffering from leukemia, so his death from cancer shocked many. In addition to his Emmy Awards, Bradley's work garnered numerous other honors, as well. He earned such prestigious prizes as the Overseas Press Club of America Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the George Polk Award, and the National Association of Black Journalists Lifetime Achievement Award, among others.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 46, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2003.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2006, section 3, p. 8.

Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2006, p. B8.

New York Times, November 10, 2006, pp. A1, A29.

Times (London, England), November 13, 2006, p. 63.

Washington Post, November 10, 2006, pp. A1, A18.