Who

Rege has been hamming it up on TV for close to five decades.

Backstory

Philbin grew up in the Bronx and attended Notre Dame before heading west to make it big in broadcasting. After a stint as a TV writer, he found his way in front of the camera in 1961 with a local show in San Diego called The Regis Philbin Show; national fame followed a few years later when he was tapped to serve as sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show. Philbin eventually returned to the local airwaves, hosting a series of talk and game shows around the country including Philbin's People, A.M. Los Angeles, Regis Philbin's Saturday Night in St. Louis, and Regis Philbin's Health Styles. In 1983, he moved to New York to host The Morning Show. The program was only mildly successful until Kathie Lee Gifford was added as a co-host in 1985; three years later, the program, which had been renamed Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee, went into national syndication thanks to corny banter and puff celebrity interviews that earned Regis and Kathie the adoration of millions of housewives. Gifford left the show in 2000 and was replaced by perky soap actress Kelly Ripa, but the program has continued to perform well in the ratings. And although Regis decided to cut back on his schedule in 2007—he now only appears on the show three days a week—he's committed to staying on through the end of 2009.

Of note

Philbin and Ripa have their routine down pat: He acts like a befuddled old man while an over-caffeinated Ripa rolls her eyes, and then the duo move on to "interviews" with the likes of Patrick Dempsey and Toby Keith and hand out cruises to at-home callers. It's a comfy gig—and it pays pretty good, too: In 2006 Regis collected $21 million, much of it from Live! But he has a handful of other gigs to keep the coffers filled. He hosted Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during its initial heyday before handing off the reins to Meredith Vieira in 2002; Fox hired him to emcee their annual New Year's telecast, pitting him head-to-gelled head with Ryan Seacrest; and in 2008, Rege will reprise his role as game show host with CBS's Million Dollar Password. But even when he's not hosting a show, Rege is usually an inescapable presence on the air: He often serves as a last-minute fill-in when scheduled guests flake out on The Late Show with David Letterman and The View. Perhaps not surprisingly, Philbin holds the Guinness World Record for most hours on camera.

Medical file

Philbin underwent triple-bypass heart surgery in early 2006; his surgeon was Dr. O. Wayne Isom, who also handled cardiac crises for Philbin's pals David Letterman and Larry King.

Personal

Philbin married his first wife, Kay Faylan, in 1955. They had two kids, Amy and Daniel, before divorcing in 1968. Philbin remarried married Joy Senese in 1970 and had two more children, Joanna and Jennifer (J.J.). His two youngest daughters are both TV writers; J.J. was also a producer of The OC on Fox. The Philbins live on the 51st floor of the Millennium Tower on the Upper West Side, just steps away from the set of Regis's daytime show. Their neighbors include Alan Alda, Liam Neeson, Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky. The Philbins also own a French-style weekend home in Greenwich, which they purchased in 1993.

No joke

He has a street named after him, Regis Philbin Avenue, in the Morris Park section of the Bronx.