Art Linkletter: 1912-2010

Television host Art Linkletter poses on the press line at the "Target Presents Variety's Power of Youth" event to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Los Angeles on Oct. 4, 2009. Linkletter, who hosted the popular TV shows "People Are Funny" and "House Party" in the 1950s and 1960s, died Wednesday, May 26, 2010, at his home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. He was 97.

Art Linkletter posing with the Emmy awarded to him by the Television Academy for the best daytime program, in Los Angeles on March 7, 1955. Linkletter was known on TV for his funny interviews with children and ordinary folks. He also collected their comments in a number of best-selling books.

In this photo taken on March 2, 1961, National Easter Seal twins Patricia Webber, left, and her sister Paula, stand at the White House with, from back row left, Seal Chairman Art Linkletter, President John F. Kennedy, and Joseph J. Foss, president of the Society for crippled Children and Adults.

TV personality Art Linkletter and wife Lois arrive for President Reagan's party in Los Angeles on Dec. 1, 1985. Married in 1935, Linkletter is survived by his wife, daughters Dawn Griffin and Sharon Linkletter, seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. In 1969, his 20-year-old daughter Diane jumped to her death from her sixth-floor Hollywood apartment. He blamed her death on LSD use and became a crusader against drugs. A son, Robert, died in a car accident in 1980. Another son, Jack Linkletter, was 70 when he died of lymphoma in 2007.

Four-year-old Ronnie Glahn shows Art Linkletter his idea of how bad guys look, on Art's TV show in Hollywood, April 5, 1962. Linkletter held a series of radio and promotion jobs in California and Texas, experimenting with audience participation and remote broadcasts, before forming his own production company in the 1940s and striking it big with "People Are Funny" and "House Party."

In this June 27, 1968 photo, Art Linkletter gives advice to Miss Wool hopefuls, from left, Tami Bogue, Miss Wool of Illinois; Cheryl Crain, Miss Wool of Oklahoma and Semo Sakelaris, Miss Wool of Idaho, during a break in rehearsals for the Miss Wool Pageant in San Angelo.

Art Linkletter, shown in 1990, collected quotes from children into "Kids Say The Darndest Things," and it sold in the millions. The book "70 Years of Best Sellers 1895-1965" ranked it as the 15th top seller among nonfiction books in that period.

Art Linkletter, seen here in 2000, had extensive business interests. He headed a company involved in real estate development and management and operation of cattle ranches in Montana, New Mexico and California. He held interests in oil and gas wells, owned livestock in Australia and was involved in a solar energy firm.

TV host Art Linkletter, shown here in 2002, was born Arthur Gordon Kelly on July 17, 1912, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. His unwed mother put him up for adoption when he was a baby; when he was about 7, he and his adoptive parents moved to the U.S., eventually settling in San Diego.

Art Linkletter gives a thumbs up as he walks a red carpet in 2003. After leaving daily broadcasting in 1969, Linkletter continued to write, lecture and appear in commercials. Among his other books, were "Old Age is Not for Sissies," "How To Be a Supersalesman," "Confessions of a Happy Man," "Hobo on the Way to Heaven" and his autobiography, "I Didn't Do It Alone."

TV personality Art Linkletter poses for a photo at his office in Los Angeles on 27, 2006. A recording Linkletter made with his daughter Diane not long before she died, "We Love You, Call Collect," was issued after her death and won a Grammy award for best spoken word recording.