Table of Biography
Brian Williams is a well-known American journalist. Brian Williams is famously known for working at NBC News. Presently, Brian Williams is engaged in the network’s cable news channel MSNBC as a chief anchor.
Early Life and Childhood
Brian Williams is a commentator who was born on May 5, 1959. He was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey. At present, he is 63 years old with the zodiac sign of Tauras. He was born to Dorothy May and Gordon Lewis Williams. His nationality is American. Moreover, his birth name is Brian Douglas Williams.
Similarly, he was an executive vice president of the National Retail Merchants Association. His mother used to be an amateur stage actress. Williams has four siblings. He is the youngest among them. Further, his nationality is American whereas he has Irish, Swedish, and German ancestry.
Moreover, he is a native of both New York and New Jersey, however, he lives in Connecticut. Moreover, he also spent several years as a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey. Also, he shares his name with long-time Canadian sportscaster Brian Williams.
In a segment taped while they were both in Vancouver for the Olympics 2010, the Canadian Williams said they had exchanged emails in the past but had never met in person until that time. They visited each other’s sets, and recorded mock introductions:
“Welcome back to our coverage, CTV Prime Time with Brian Williams. I’m Brian Williams, sitting in for Brian Williams”
They also gave each other a gift. NBC’s Williams gave Canada’s Williams a jacket emblazoned with his show’s logo – and his “own” name.
Education
Before moving to Middletown Township, he used to live in Elmira, New York for nine years when he was in high school.
Brian Williams graduated from Mater Dei High School. It is a Roman Catholic high school in the New Monmouth section of Middletown called New Monmouth (Middletown), New Jersey.. Williams was a volunteer firefighter for three years at the Middletown Township Fire Department. Furthermore, he was also the editorial editor for the school newspaper during high school.
He went through an accident while playing a football game that led him to a crooked nose. Brian Williams went on to attend Brookdale Community College after high school. Later on, he transferred to The Catholic University of America and then to George Washington University. Instead of graduating, he interned with the administration of President Jimmy Carter. After a while, he considered leaving college one of his ‘great regrets’. Further, he received an honorary doctorate from Elmira College in May 1998.
Brian Williams – Net Worth 2023
Brian Williams’ net worth is expected to be $40 million. He is among the highest-paid journalists. According to the latest report, the journalist receives an annual salary of $10 million from his successful reporting career with NBC.
Career and Professional Life
Early broadcast career
To begin with, William’s first job was as a busboy at Perkins Pancake House. His career was initiated when he worked in broadcasting in 1981 at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kansas. The talented correspondent joined NBC News in 1993 after 12 years in local news. He anchored the national Weekend Nightly News. Similarly, he was also the chief White House correspondent. He even served as a correspondent and anchor at stations in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC after working at KOAM-TV in Pittsburgh, Kansas.
In the summer of 1996, he started working as an anchor and managing editor of The News with Brian Williams, broadcast on MSNBC and CNBC. He also worked as a primary substitute anchor for Tom Brokaw on The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Additionally, he also served as the Weekend anchor of that news broadcast. In early 1987, he televised in New York City at WCBS.
NBC Nightly News
On 2nd December 2004, Williams replaced the retiring Tom Brokaw by becoming the anchor of NBC Nightly News.
In his first year, he was noticed by the coverage of two disasters: the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. His NBC Katrina coverage was widely applauded “for venting his anger and frustration over the government’s failure to act quickly to help the victims.” He also got a Peabody Award for its coverage, The Peabody committee along with the entire staff of NBC Nightly News demonstrated the highest levels of journalistic greatness in reporting on Hurricane Katrina.” NBC Nightly News also gained the George Polk Award and the DuPont-Columbia University Award for its Katrina coverage.
His work was defined for Katrina as “Murrow-worthy” and also reported that during the hurricane he embellished “a nation’s anchor.” The New York Times represented his reporting of the hurricane as “a defining moment.”
In October 2011, there was an announcement that Williams was the host of ‘Rock Center with Brian Williams’, a news magazine program.
Caption: Brian (Source: variety)
Rock Center with Brian Williams
On October 4, 2011, the announcement was made for his work as an anchor on Rock Center with Brian Williams. The show premiered in a newsmagazine program on October 31, 2011, at 10:00 pm Eastern, instead of the canceled drama series The Playboy Club.
However, NBC canceled his show on May 10, 2013, due to low ratings; the network was getting into trouble looking for a permanent time slot for the program. His last show aired on June 21, 2013, and he reportedly felt “insulted” by the program’s cancellation.
MSNBC
In 2015, Williams went back to the air as MSNBC’s chief anchor. He was engaged in news events including ‘Pope Francis’s trip to the United States, ‘The Umpqua Community College shooting’, and terrorist attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, Belgium, and Nice.
In January 2016, he also became the role of Chief Elections Anchor for MSNBC and debuted in the new role during coverage of the 2016 Iowa Caucuses. As part of MSNBC’s chief anchor, the reporter anchors a nightly news and politics wrap-up show, titled ‘The 11th Hour with Brian Williams‘ right away.
Further activities
Brian often appeared on The Daily Show as a celebrity guest in 2007. In the episode of the same year, he also made his appearances on Sesame Street. By the same token, his appearance was regular on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. As a caricatured version of himself, he made frequent guest appearances on NBC’s television comedy 30 Rock.
The brilliant correspondent was a speaker at various educational institutions such as Bates College, The Catholic University of America, Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame, George Washington University, and Elon University.
The 60-year-old broadcaster also collaborated on the Encyclopedia of World History from Backpack Books published in 2003. He has contributed by writing for publications including The New York Times and Time magazine.
Awards and Nominations
Brian was considered one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2007. In addition, he was also awarded the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism by Arizona State University. Before this, he was also named “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Committee in 1996.
Caption: Brian received awards for his NBC News coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Source: The Peabody Awards
He is the person who achieved twelve News & Documentary Emmy Awards while anchoring the Nightly News. He received one Emmy in 2006, two in 2007, one in 2009, two in 2010, one in 2011, one in 2013, and one in 2015. The brilliant journalist accomplished the awards through his outstanding work as an anchor and managing editor of the Nightly News.
Likewise, he also earned the award of Nightly News for its coverage of a deadly series of tornadoes in Oklahoma, for which it also received the DuPont-Columbia University Award. He received a 2012 Emmy for an interview program at Rock Center. Additionally, he got a 2013 Emmy for being an executive producer and editor of a documentary on the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Finally, he shared a 2014 Emmy award for an NBC News special on the Boston Marathon bombing. Additionally, Brian Willams was inducted into the 2014 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Arts and Letters Category.
Personal Life
Brian is a married man. He tied the knot with the love of his life, Jane Stoddard Williams on 7th June 1986. The wedding was held at the First Presbyterian Church of New Canaan, Connecticut.
The couple has two children, Douglas Williams, and Allison Williams. Allison is an actress and a musician. Douglas is an anchor of Geico SportsNite on SportsNet New York.
In 1996, Brian was named “Father of the Year” by the National Father’s Day Committee.
Caption: Brian with his family. Source: CelebWikiCorner
Scandal
Iraq War helicopter incident
The reporter was suspended for six months in February 2015. NBC News President Deborah Turness announced his suspension from Nightly News for six months without pay for having misrepresented the Iraq incident.
The reason was he misrepresented his experience in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The anchorperson illogically referred to a suicide that took place inside the New Orleans Superdome at the time of Katrina.
In 2015, he apologized for and took back his disproven Iraq War story. Correspondingly, the controversy came to an end on 19th June 2015. He gave one more apology and an account of his role in the news going forward in an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today Show.
Body Measurements
Regarding his body measurement, he is 6 feet tall with a weight of 103 kg. His hair color is dyed blonde with the eye color of hazel. However, there are no further details about body measurements.
Moreover, Williams had knee replacement surgery in August 2013. He announced this news publicly on several occasions and also spoke about the surgery on several talk shows, including his October 3, 2013 appearance on Late Show with David Letterman which started back in the year 1993 on the rival CBS networks.
Brian Williams – Social Media
Certainly, the accomplished reporter is active on social media. He has 145k followers on Facebook and 231k followers on Twitter.