John Mathew Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0

A broadcast journalist whose direct, confrontational interviewing style helped define American television news across seven decades, from early live interview programs through his years as one of the original correspondents on CBS's 60 Minutes, which debuted in 1968. He interviewed presidents, dictators, and cultural figures over a career that spanned generations, and kept appearing on the program until 2008, two years after formally retiring as a full-time correspondent.