Sam Rubin, a veteran journalist who led KTLA's leisure protection for greater than 30 years, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 64 years outdated.
KTLA information anchor Frank Buckley confirmed Rubin's loss of life Friday afternoon. Preventing again tears as he introduced the information on air, Buckley referred to as the loss of life of his colleague “stunning” and “obscure presently.”
“Merely put, Sam was KTLA,” he mentioned. “The newsroom is crying proper now.”
Rubin was on air Thursday, interviewing actress Jane Seymour, however he referred to as in sick on Friday and was changed by movie critic Scott Mantz. The community didn’t share extra particulars about Rubin's loss of life, however a supply aware of the circumstances instructed The Instances that he went into cardiac arrest at his West Valley house Friday morning and was taken to a hospital, the place he was pronounced useless. useless.
“Sam was an enormous within the native information business and leisure world, and a fixture on Los Angeles morning tv for many years,” KTLA mentioned of Rubin in a statement shared on social networks. “His snicker, allure and caring persona touched everybody who knew him.”
Mantz wrote on social media that he was in “absolute shock” upon studying of his colleague's surprising loss of life. “I all the time referred to as him 'The Godfather of Leisure Information,' and that was true. An absolute legend [and] “a beneficiant individual.”
Rubin was born on February 16, 1960 in San Diego, went to highschool in Los Angeles and attended Occidental School, the place he earned a bachelor's diploma in American research and rhetoric.
He joined KTLA's “Morning Information” program in 1991, incomes a fame for his charming interviews and heat persona on and off the air. In keeping with founding co-host Carlos Amezcua, Rubin introduced the sense of Los Angeles authenticity that the fledgling present wanted.
Amezcua, 70, described Rubin as “the connective tissue” that helped him, climate forecaster Mark Kriski and co-host Barbara Beck attain their goal audiences.
“What you’ll be able to all the time say about Sam is that he helped 'KTLA Morning Information' join with Los Angeles as a local Angeleno who liked Los Angeles and knew the town higher than anybody on set,” mentioned Amezcua, who joined KTLA the identical 12 months. Like Rubin. “We had LA in our name letters, and Sam all the time mentioned we knew LA and LA knew us.”
What impressed him most was Rubin's depth of data. “He knew Hollywood and what was necessary to the leisure business,” mentioned Amezcua, co-founder of digital streaming service Beond TV.
Over time, Amezcua mentioned, viewers and even some inside the business started to think about Rubin himself a celeb.
“We used to make enjoyable of him on a regular basis for that,” Amezcua mentioned. “I used to inform him, 'You're solely as huge because the celebrities you're interviewing.' He would simply snicker and say, 'Come on,' however I believe deep down he knew.”
However that degree of native fame generally discovered Rubin in conditions that pushed the boundaries of journalistic ethics, as in 1992, when he accepted a small position on “The Jackie Thomas Present” a couple of weeks after serving to publicize the comedy by interviewing the star Tom Arnold and his then-wife, Roseanne Barr, between the sheets of their mattress.
“I can perceive the objection, however I’ve been essential of the Arnolds up to now and shall be sooner or later,” Rubin instructed the Instances in December. “And it's only a two-line step. I'm not making a lot cash for this. I might make much more by promoting a nasty article concerning the Arnolds someplace.
For his work because the comedy's primary reporter, Rubin mentioned he was paid on a scale: then $466 a day.
Beloved by his colleagues and lots of others in Tinseltown, Rubin additionally had a historical past with The Instances that included a number of contentious back-and-forths between him and several other writers on the paper.
Rubin wrote an article for The Instances in February 1999, responding to Brian Lowry, who was then a tv columnist for the outlet and is now a senior leisure author for CNN. Within the run-up to that 12 months's Academy Awards, Lowry had listed Rubin as considered one of a brand new era of native tv reporters “who put a lot emphasis on entertaining that reporting has develop into one thing of a joke.”
“Brian Lowry shows such vitriol and rancor in his latest tirade in opposition to me and the growth of leisure journalism that maybe he simply wants a little bit lesson in how these of us who’re profitable on this line of labor truly do our jobs,” Rubin wrote . in his response. “I by no means attended 'Clown School,' however since Mr. Lowry insists that I’m the PT Barnum of my era, listed below are some suggestions.”
Rubin went on to advise Lowry to discover a “real appreciation” for his viewers and, most significantly, to be taught “the significance of tone.”
“I’ve to run now and placed on my clown swimsuit; “There's one other youngsters's celebration I'll be entertaining,” Rubin mentioned in conclusion. “My clown costume, after all, is hanging in my closet, slightly below the shelf that holds my three native Emmy Awards.”
Two years later, additionally round Oscar time, Instances tv critic Howard Rosenberg wrote an article concerning the competitors amongst morning newscasts by which he talked about “meteorologist Mark Kriski, who seems to stay to be the form of humorous individual you'd see hanging from a chandelier with a lampshade on his head at a cocktail celebration. And in addition… the present's lipped poof, showbiz groupie Sam Rubin.”
Rosenberg, now retired, observed that Rubin and Kriski had torn up a replica of The Instances that contained a narrative concerning the battle between KTLA and rival KTTV, house of the No. 2 morning present “Good Day LA.” He didn't just like the story. He reported that whereas KTLA held the primary spot within the morning, its general viewership was down from the earlier 12 months.
Nonetheless, in the identical column, Rosenberg referred to as Rubin “somebody who has develop into one thing, greater than anybody else, that 'Good Day LA' can't match.”
In change, Rubin wrote a narrative proposing a job change with Rosenberg.
“I can think about my week as a tv critic for the Los Angeles Instances. 'Honey, might you alter the La-Z-Boy? This therapeutic massage perform doesn’t work. And honey, might you play one other video from some little-known cable channel? Now, let me see, the place on the earth am I going to search out time to write down the occasional overview and my two columns scheduled for the complete week?'” Rubin wrote.
“Howard is in for an actual change of tempo. He can use my alarm clock, which is ready for four am. Howard can select which tales to report, write each phrase of his report himself, order the videotape he wants, choose all of the graphics, placed on make-up, and give you a joke or two that poke enjoyable at his boss on the LA Instances. In fact, he must do that for 5 days in a row.”
Away from the tv cameras and clashes with the media, Rubin's life revolved round his household, his former colleague Amezcua mentioned.
“I’ve 5 youngsters and so they all knew Sam and his household, and Sam was very beneficiant along with his time,” Amezcua mentioned. “He was an excellent household man and so they liked him. “All of us liked him.”
Former information director Jason Ball, who labored at KTLA from 2008 to 2021 earlier than retiring, referred to as Rubin “bigger than life” and “a lion” who “deserves to be commemorated.”
Ball mentioned he sometimes clashed with Rubin over present concepts, however didn't thoughts when his colleague “pushed him out of his consolation zone.”
“Typically you didn't know what I used to be going to do, which might be a problem for me,” Ball mentioned. “However I all the time knew he had the center of the present in thoughts, and I actually don't know the way KTLA will perform with out him.”
Because the face of KTLA's leisure protection, Rubin gained over Los Angeles audiences, together with movie star viewers Tom Hanks and Henry Winkler.
“He made you are feeling particular each time,” Winkler mentioned in a name to KTLA on Friday. “He made each human being really feel so particular and made them open like a flower.”
He additionally had a manner of turning chaff into wheat. “There are plenty of silly, boring celebrities on the market,” “Alias” actor Greg Grunberg mentioned by cellphone on Friday's broadcast. “And man, did he make them look attention-grabbing?”
The San Diego-born reporter additionally introduced his business data to platforms overseas. He appeared commonly on BBC Tv and incessantly contributed to Australia's Triple M radio and Channel 9 Tv, in keeping with KTLA's web site.
Rubin, writer of biographies of former first girl Jacqueline Onassis and “Rosemary's Child” star Mia Farrow, has gained a number of native Emmy Awards for his leisure protection. He additionally obtained a Golden Mike Award for leisure reporting and an Related Press Tv and Radio Award for his work. Different recognitions included honors from the Southern California Broadcasters Affiliation, the Los Angeles Press Membership and the Nationwide Hispanic Media Coalition.
“He was born to be an announcer. He was one of the best announcer there’s,” Eric Spillman, a KTLA reporter and longtime colleague of Rubin, mentioned throughout Friday’s broadcast.
Exterior of his on-air work, Rubin was a founding member of the Broadcast Movie Critics Assn., owned a tv manufacturing firm in his title, and supported a number of nonprofit organizations.
Rubin is survived by his spouse, Leslie Gale Shuman, and 4 youngsters.