Bill Cullen
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- For the Irish businessman and philanthropist see Bill Cullen (Irish).
| Bill Cullen | |
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 Bill Cullen
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| Born | February 18, 1920 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Died | July 7, 1990 Bel Air, California |
William "Bill" Lawrence Frances Cullen (February 18, 1920 – July 7, 1990), was an American radio and television personality. He was best known for his roles in game shows, both as host and as a panelist, which spanned a period of five decades in both radio and television.
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[edit] Polio and the early years
Cullen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and survived a childhood bout with polio that left him with a limp for the rest of his life. (In most of his later game shows, the set was designed in such a way that he came out from behind the curtain or from off stage riding on something of a turntable so that he never had to walk any distance across the stage and advertise this fact.) He also wore very thick glasses, which became kind of a trademark.
Cullen's career began in his hometown of Pittsburgh, where he worked at WWSW radio. He assisted sportscaster Joe Tucker, who called Pittsburgh Steelers games. He was well known for his puckish sense of humor and for playing pranks on his fellow announcers while they were on the air. Cullen decided to try his luck in New York and one of his first jobs was writing for the "Easy Aces" radio show.
[edit] Game show career
After moving to New York City he hosted several radio programs, including game shows, in the late 1940s and 1950s. His first TV game show was Winner Take All, a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman production that aired on CBS in 1952. He hosted the daytime and prime-time versions of The Price is Right, another Goodson-Todman production, from 1956 to 1965. He was also a panelist on I've Got a Secret from 1952 until 1967 and then on To Tell the Truth from 1969 until 1978, where he would also guest host on occasion. Cullen also guest-hosted the late-1970s revival of Password on NBC, known as Password Plus.
Cullen hosted 23 different game shows over the years, making him host of more game shows than anyone in television history. These shows include Eye Guess in the 1960s, Three on a Match and the nighttime version of The $25,000 Pyramid in the 1970s, and Blockbusters, Child's Play, Hot Potato and The Joker's Wild in the 1980s.
He appeared as a celebrity guest on many other game shows throughout his TV career, including I've Got a Secret, Password, To Tell the Truth, Match Game, and the daytime versions of Pyramid (except The $100,000 Pyramid). Cullen also hostead a number of pilots for his close friend, quiz producer Bob Stewart. who created Price, Truth and Password for Goodson-Todman and Pyramid for his own company. He is the only person to host each of these formats on a full- or part-time basis.)
[edit] Achievements
Cullen was a pilot during World War II and was interested in mechanics. He did color commentary on college football games early in his career, and also broadcasted track and field on NBC. On I've Got A Secret, the producers learned that if they wanted to keep the game going for a while, they would never start with Bill if it was anything sports-related or mechanical, because chances were good that he would guess it immediately.
[edit] Personal life
Cullen was married three times. His first marriage was a brief one while still living in Pittsburgh. His second marriage was to singer Carol Ames from 1949 to 1955. On December 24, 1955, Cullen married former dancer and model Ann Roemheld Macomber; this marriage would endure until his death. Ann's father, Heinz Roemheld, was an Oscar-winning Hollywood composer and musician. Her sister, Mary Lou, was married for a number of years to Jack Narz, another game show host, who is the brother of another game show guru Tom Kennedy. Ann Cullen often appeared with Bill on the Goodson-Todman show Tattletales in the 70s and 80s.
Cullen died on July 7, 1990 of lung cancer at the age of 70. Even nine years after his death, Cullen was considered as a potential host for the American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, according to the show's eventual host, Regis Philbin. Of course, this talk ended after the show's producers found out that Cullen was deceased.
[edit] Honors
The Game Show Congress, a nonprofit association that seeks to promote the game show industry, annually presents the Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award to performers who have had distinguished careers in the genre. The first award in 2004 was given posthumously to Cullen himself, his widow Ann accepted.
