Frank Gifford
Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL), he was a play-by-play announcer and commentator for 27 years on ABC's Monday Night Football.
No. 16
August 16, 1930
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
August 9, 2015 (aged 84)
Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
197 lb (89 kg)
1952 / Round: 1 / Pick: 11
3,609
3,609
4.3
34
367
5,434
43
Gifford won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award from United Press International in 1956, the same season his team won the NFL Championship. During his career, he participated in five league championship games and was named to eight Pro Bowls. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977. After retiring as a player Gifford was an Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, known for his work on ABC's Monday Night Football, Wide World of Sports, and the Olympics. He was married to television host Kathie Lee Gifford from 1986 until his death.
Acting roles[edit]
Frank Gifford appeared as Ensign Cy Mount in the 1959 World War II submarine film drama Up Periscope, starring James Garner, Edmond O'Brien, Andra Martin, and Alan Hale Jr.
Gifford appeared as himself as a guest star on the NBC television series, Hazel, in the episode, "Hazel and the Halfback", which originally aired December 26, 1963.[31] In the story, Gifford is interested in investing in a local bowling alley. In 1977, Gifford appeared as himself in the episode "The Shortest Yard" of the ABC sitcom The San Pedro Beach Bums. He also appeared as himself in a two-hour episode of The Six Million Dollar Man titled "The Bionic Boy" in the same year. In 1994, Gifford also appeared as himself in the Nickelodeon kids show The Adventures of Pete & Pete as a customer for the boy's Dad's driving range. In season one episode 4 titled "Rangeboy", Gifford and his wife Kathie Lee appeared in the February 28, 1995, episode of the ABC sitcom Coach, titled "The Day I Met Frank Gifford", in which a character on the show plots to meet the former football star who will attend an event to receive an award.
Gifford also had acting roles in television commercials.[32]
Personal life[edit]
Gifford married his college sweetheart, USC's homecoming queen Maxine Avis Ewart, on January 13, 1952, after she became pregnant while they were students at USC.[2] They had three children, Jeff (b. 1952), Kyle and Victoria, and five grandchildren.[33] Victoria Gifford married Michael LeMoyne Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy. Frank Gifford was next married to fitness trainer Astrid Lindley from 1978 to 1986. His first two marriages ended in divorce.[8] Gifford married television presenter and singer Kathie Lee Johnson, who was 23 years his junior, on October 18, 1986. The couple settled in Greenwich, Connecticut, with their son, Cody Newton Gifford and daughter, Cassidy Erin Gifford.[34] Gifford and his third wife Kathie Lee shared the same birthday, August 16. The couple co-hosted ABC's coverage of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.[35]
Gifford had an older sister and younger brother, Winona and Waine.
In 1997, the tabloid magazine Globe paid a woman named Suzen Johnson to meet, befriend, and lure Gifford into a New York City hotel room secretly equipped with videotape systems enabling the Globe to take and obtain photos of Gifford being seduced.[36] They published photos and stories. ESPN reported that the tabloid paid Johnson $75,000 to lure Gifford to the room[2] while The Atlantic said it was $125,000.[37] National Enquirer editor Steve Coz observed, "There's a difference between reporting the news and creating the news ... [w]ithout The Globe, there would be no story here. I'm in the tabloid industry, and this is way over the top. It's downright cruel."[38]
The former lawyer of Johnny Carson, Henry Bushkin, claimed that Gifford had an affair with Carson's second wife Joanne in 1970.[8]
Death[edit]
On August 9, 2015, a week before his 85th birthday, Gifford died from natural causes at his Greenwich, Connecticut, home.[39][40]
In November 2015, Gifford's family revealed that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The family said, "After losing our beloved husband and father, Frank Gifford, we as a family made the difficult decision to have his brain studied in hopes of contributing to the advancement of medical research concerning the link between football and traumatic brain injury... We decided to disclose our loved one's condition to honor Frank's legacy of promoting player safety dating back to his involvement in the formation of the NFL Players Association in the 1950s."[41] He was one of at least 345 NFL players to be diagnosed after death with this disease, which is caused by repeated hits to the head.[42][43]
College
NFL
Television