"This guy's killing us and no one's even trying to rein him in," Gumbel wrote. In a 1989 internal memo that was leaked to the media, "Today" co-anchor Bryant Gumbel said Scott was holding the show "hostage to his assortment of whims, wishes, birthdays and bad taste." Not everyone appreciated Scott's on-air antics. In all, he announced some 40,000 100th birthdays, NBC said. The show received hundreds of requests for 100th birthday shout-outs and Scott did them once a week on the show into 2015, long after he had turned over the full-time weather job. In 1983 Scott wished a happy 100th birthday to a woman on the air, starting a tradition that became one of the "Today" show's most popular features. Viewers sent him gifts and flocked to see him when he did the weather live from county fairs, parades and civic events around the country. Scott's success in Washington led to the weather job at "Today" in 1980 and his outsized personality, good ole boy demeanor and small-town values made him a fan favorite. It was a crude costume - Scott wore a food box on his head and had a paper cup for a nose - but the people at McDonald's headquarters liked it enough to take the character nationwide.įor the national ad campaign McDonald's hired someone else to play Ronald, leaving Scott to think it was his size - he was 6-foot-3 (1.9 meters) and weighed close to 300 pounds (136 kg) at times - that cost him the job. While working in Washington TV and radio, Scott took a side job portraying Bozo the Clown on a children's show, which led to another clown role that became one of the world's best-known marketing characters.Ī Washington-area McDonald's franchise owner hired Scott in the early 1960s for ads for his restaurants as the first Ronald McDonald, the hamburger-loving clown. Scott was born and grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, a Washington suburb, and was a teenager when he took his first broadcast job as a page for an NBC station in Washington in 1950. That's my act."Īt his peak popularity, Scott also was a well-paid, in-demand convention speaker and ubiquitous pitchman, promoting sodas and tea, oranges, cars, hotels, jelly, hardware and other products. "People said I was a buffoon to do it," Scott told the New York Times. Most famously, he went on the air dressed as 1940s dancer Carmen Miranda - including dress, earrings, high heels and fruit-laden hat - to benefit a charity. He dressed as Cupid for one Valentine's Day, came out of a manhole in a groundhog costume on Groundhog Day, had an on-the-air bar mitzvah (he was a Southern Baptist) and kissed a pig. His act was aided by a high threshold for embarrassment. The recognition and affection was so meaningful to Gary and to our family.”Ĭhrisse Waddell has requested privacy during this difficult time.Believing television weather forecasters needed to have some sort of shtick, Scott gave viewers a madcap, eager-to-please persona during a 35-year run on NBC's "Today" that ended with his retirement on Dec.
This was true in Las Vegas, in Hawaii, in Mexico, even in Europe on a motorcycle trip. “I can’t tell you how happy it made us that everywhere Gary went, he would be recognized and showered with affection. We are all feeling the loss, as are Gary’s many friends and the people who admired his work for decades. “Despite the fact that we legally divorced, we remained family through all these years,” Chrisse Waddell said. Prior to his tenure at the Southern Nevada CBS affiliate, Waddell, a member of the Nevada Broadcast Hall of Fame, served for four years as anchor, reporter and weatherman at KORK-TV (now KSNV) Channel 3. Waddell was a KLAS anchor from 1980 through his 2012 retirement. He was fully vaccinated, but the longtime Las Vegan also suffered from a number of significant co-morbidities. Waddell died due to complications from COVID-19. LAS VEGAS (KTNV) - Longtime KLAS-TV Channel 8 anchor Gary Waddell passed away Thursday night, according to his ex-wife Chrisse Waddell.