Alan Alda to honor talk-show pioneer Phil Donahue at O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award, October 16, 2017.
On Monday, October 16, actor and author Alan Alda will help Irish American Writers and Artists Inc. (IAW&A) honor television talk-show pioneer Phil Donahue at IAW&A's 2017 annual Eugene O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award Celebration.
Tickets are currently on sale for the festive evening taking place at the Manhattan Club, upstairs at Rosie O'Grady's, 800 7th Avenue (at 52nd Street), starting at 6 p.m.
Six-time Emmy Award winner Alda will be on hand to honor this year's winner of the O'Neill Award, an achievement established in 2009 by the IAWA to honor the accomplishments of a writer, actor, musician or another artist whose body of work exemplifies the level of integrity established by the Irish-American writer.
The award will this year be presented to Phil Donahue, who created and hosted the innovative "The Phil Donahue Show," the first TV talk show to incorporate audience participation.
"He has always been the ultimate Irish American voice for truth and justice in media," said Kathleen Walsh D'Arcy, IAW&A Board Member and Co-Chair of the St. Pat's For All Parade.
"As our parade Grand Marshal last March, he spoke about human rights, LGBTQ rights, and an Irish history of immigration that shows we should embrace new waves of immigrants from around the world."
On national American television for 29 years, The Phil Donahue Show remains the longest continuous run of any syndicated TV talk show in U.S. history.
During his career, Phil Donahue garnered 20 Emmy Awards, ten for Outstanding Talk Show Host, and 10 for The Phil Donahue Show. He received a Peabody Award in 1980 and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993.
"Apart from Mr. Donahue's many artistic triumphs,” said IAW&A President Larry Kirwan, “Irish American Writers and Artists, as a progressive organization, is proud to salute his political activism and his very meaningful and costly protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.”
The previous Eugene O’Neill Lifetime Achievement Award honorees have included Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy; actor and noted O'Neill interpreter Brian Dennehy; co-founders of New York’s Irish Repertory Theatre Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O’Reilly; journalist and author Pete Hamill; and actor, author, and radio host Malachy McCourt.
Held in the Times Square district of New York City, just a few blocks north of where O’Neill was born on October 16, 1888, the Eugene O'Neill Lifetime Achievement Award Celebration is a convivial evening of food, drink, conversation, and song with a casual cocktail party atmosphere, much mingling with guests both famous and infamous, an extensive array of appetizers and desserts, and an open bar. The event begins at 6 pm and continues until 9 pm.
For more information on the IAW&A, visit the organization’s website: http://i-am-wa.org/.
For updates and information, visit the IAW&A's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/IrishAmericanWritersAndArtistsInc/.
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