Happy 81st Birthday to the legendary Geraldo Rivera! Born July 4, 1943, Geraldo Rivera is a name that has become synonymous with bold, sometimes controversial television journalism—and with an unmistakable flair for the headline-grabbing story.
Rivera’s career took off in the early 1970s when he broke new ground with Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace, an investigative report that exposed the appalling conditions inside a New York state institution for people with intellectual disabilities. That report won him a Peabody Award and set the tone for his career: unafraid, dramatic, and always willing to go where others wouldn’t.
In the decades that followed, Geraldo became one of the most recognizable faces in American broadcast journalism. Whether anchoring Good Night America—where he famously aired the first national TV broadcast of the Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination—or hosting his own syndicated talk show, Geraldo, Rivera blended news and spectacle in a way that was uniquely his own. His mustache became a trademark almost as iconic as his on-air stunts.
He never shied away from controversy—sometimes to his own peril. Who could forget the infamous live TV moment in 1986 when he opened Al Capone’s vault, only to find it empty? Or the dramatic on-set brawls that erupted on Geraldo in the late ‘80s, which both fueled his fame and cemented his image as a provocateur who blurred the line between hard news and tabloid TV.
But Rivera is more than just sensational headlines. Over his five-decade career, he’s reported from war zones, hurricanes, political battlegrounds, and courtroom dramas. He’s been a tenacious correspondent for 20/20, a Fox News mainstay, and a polarizing commentator who never shies away from weighing in on hot-button issues—whether people agree with him or not.
Love him or loathe him, Geraldo Rivera’s fearless pursuit of the story and his undeniable charisma have made him one of the longest-lasting figures in American broadcast journalism. Few people have a career that spans Watergate to the Iraq War to reality TV—Rivera does, all with his signature boldness and, yes, that famous mustache still intact.
At 81, he remains as outspoken as ever—a true showman journalist whose legacy is a reminder that TV news can be as much about personality as it is about the scoop.
