Los Angeles (May 19, 2016) — SAG-AFTRA celebrates the life and career of broadcast legend and SAG-AFTRA member Morley Safer, who has died at the age of 84.
Said SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris of Safer, “A broadcaster of immeasurable talent and knowledge, his distinctive voice will be greatly missed. He had an uncanny way of explaining a story so that it was clear and relevant to everybody, regardless of age or profession. Phenomenally dedicated to his craft, few people had careers as long, as celebrated or as universally admired as Morley Safer.”
Although he was known for his decades-long tenure as a broadcast journalist on CBS’ 60 Minutes, Safer got his start in print journalism, working for newspapers across his native Canada and in England. In 1964, he began working for CBS in London, before opening its bureau in Saigon in 1965, at the start of the Vietnam War. There, Safer did some of the first television coverage of the Vietnam War. He would go on to join 60 Minutes in 1970, working as a correspondent and reporter. He joined AFTRA — now SAG-AFTRA — in 1972. Over the course of his long career, Safer won 12 Emmy Awards and three Peabody Awards.
In 2003, Safer received an AFTRA Media and Entertainment Excellence Award, known as an AMEE, alongside several of his fellow journalists from 60 Minutes, including Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Dan Rather, Andy Rooney, Bob Simon, Lesley Stahl and Mike Wallace.
Safer announced his retirement last week, after 46 years on 60 Minutes, making him the program’s longest-serving correspondent. Following his retirement, his life and legacy were honored in a television special that aired Sunday, Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Life.