Edwin Newman, radio and television news commentator and critic for the National Broadcasting Company, was born January 25, 1919, in New York City. He attended George Washington High School in upper Manhattan, and the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated in 1940 with a degree in political science. While at Wisconsin he was on the staff of the Daily Cardinal, the university newspaper. He began graduate study at Louisiana State University but soon decided it was not what he wanted and left school to go to Washington, D.C.
In Washington, Newman took a position with the Department of Agriculture in the field of public administration, but this too he found was not to his liking. He then obtained a job as dictation boy with the Washington bureau of the International News Service, and from there moved over to United Press.
In 1942 Newman entered the United States Navy as an ensign and served as a communications officer, first in Trinidad and then at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He was discharged in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant. He returned briefly to the staff of the United Press until the end of 1946, when he began working with the Washington bureau of PM, the New York daily. From 1947 to 1949 he was on the staff of the CBS Washington Bureau, assisting Eric Sevareid in the preparation of Sevareid's evening radio broadcasts.
Newman then left CBS to go to London, where for three years he worked on a free-lance basis, writing magazine articles and giving special broadcasts for NBC and the BBC. During this period, he also worked for the European Recovery Program in which he visited Greece, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, and Holland and wrote articles to be published in the United States.
It was in December of 1952 that Newman really began his career with the National Broadcasting Company. By 1956 he was made its new bureau chief in London, the next year was transferred to Rome to head the bureau there, and in 1958 took charge of the Paris bureau. In 1960 he came back to the United States long enough to cover the political conventions, and the following year left Paris to return to New York permanently.
With NBC, Newman serves as a narrator, reporter, writer and critic. He averages three to four hours a week on television. He frequently contributes to NBC's radio program, Emphasis, has done commentary on the Today show and The Nation's Future, was anchorman for the JFK Reports, and was the summer replacement on the weekly, This is NBC News. Newman was also narrator for the NBC specials, “Japan: East is West,” 1961; “California-The Most,” 1963; “Orient Express,” 1964; “Who Shall Live,” 1965; “Politics: The Outer Fringe,” 1966; and “Expo 67.”
In 1965, Edwin Newman was appointed drama critic for WNBC-TV (NBC) in New York, and gained a national reputation as critic and reviewer.
In 1966 the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented him with an Emmy for his dramatic criticism, and the same year he was the recipient of the Peabody Award in radio newscasting. In 1966 he also served as president of the Association of Radio, Television, and News Analysts. He was honored by the Boston Press Club and his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin.
Newman published numerous articles in a wide range of periodicals; such as Esquire, Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, New York Times Magazine, Progressive, New York Herald Tribune Book Review, and T.V. Guide.
Edwin Newman was married to the former Rigel Grell, whom he met in London. They had a daughter, Nancy. Newman and his wife lived in Manhattan, in New York City, and later moved to England. He died in Oxford, England, on August 13, 2010.
Sources: Current Biography, 1967; Life Magazine, November 15, 1968.
