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Sir Michael Parkinson’s last public appearance as legendary chat show host dies aged 88-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro
The broadcaster’s family announced his death today.
The last photos of the late Sir Michael Parkinson in public showed him enjoying a friend’s birthday (Picture: Ian Hodgson/Daily Mail)
Sir Michael Parkinson’s last public appearance showed the broadcaster celebrating the birthday of a long-time friend.
On Thursday, the chat show host’s family confirmed that Sir Parkinson had died aged 88.
A statement: ‘After a brief illness Sir Michael Parkinson passed away peacefully at home last night in the company of his family.
‘The family request that they are given privacy and time to grieve.’
After decades in the public eye, it was back in April that the presenter was last publicly photographed, at former cricket umpire Dickie Bird’s 90th birthday at Leeds’ Headingley Stadium.
Several snaps taken on the day showed Sir Parkinson smiling during the festivities, while he also looked as sharp as ever in a black trouser and navy blazer outfit combo.
The presenter was helping to celebrate friend Dickie Bird’s 90th (Picture: Ian Hodgson)
He and Dickie went way back, and in the 1950s were teammates at Barnsley Cricket Club before Sir Parkinson’s career in entertainment took off.
Best known for fronting titular talk show Parkinson between 1971 and 1982 and then between 1998 and 2007, the broadcaster interviewed some of the world’s most famous faces over the years, including Muhammad Ali, Billy Connolly, Orson Welles and John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Despite being one of the most beloved interviewers on screens for decades, last year Sir Parkinson admitted he didn’t ‘recognise’ his former self and said his talk show persona was a ‘disguise’.
The pair were clearly having a good time at the event (Picture: Ian Hodgson)
Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Sir Parkinson was asked about his iconic career by host Naga Munchetty and admitted he ‘absolutely’ got sick of seeing clips of his past work.
‘I don’t recognise the person. It is a disguise. This is a disguise, all of it,’ he responded.
‘You’re not yourself at all, it changes you. No matter how considered you might be of the problems of being famous. It changes you.’
After Naga asked ‘how’, he explained that people’s reactions ‘sometimes makes the worst person than you are’.
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