Biography
In 1970, David Sheehan became the first entertainment reporter and critic featured on a television news broadcast. He wrote, produced, and hosted Academy Awards Movie Magic, the most successful one-time syndicated special in TV history, which aired on 259 stations across 198 markets, reaching 96.544% of the United States, many during Oscar weekend.
The show included interviews with all the Best Actor and Best Actress Oscar nominees, as well as an exclusive, in-depth career profile and candid conversation with Sheehan’s longtime friend Chita Rivera, who was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture for Letters from Iwo Jima (2006).
A pioneer in television, Sheehan was the first to critique TV on TV in 1972 on KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, garnering feature articles in Time and Life magazines for his "biting the hand" commentary.
In 1975, he made history as the first local newsman to work for two networks simultaneously, appearing daily on NBC’s America Alive and CBS’s The Big News. That year, he also produced, wrote, and hosted the first pre-Oscar specials—Oscar Hopefuls, Emmy Hopefuls, and Grammy Hopefuls—and in 1979, he created and hosted HBO’s Backstage in Hollywood, the first monthly Pay-TV series.
During the early 1980s, Sheehan produced and camera-directed Pippin: His Life and Times (1982), featuring choreography by Bob Fosse and starring Ben Vereen and Martha Raye. At NBC, under president Don Ohlmeyer, he became the first local entertainment reporter to host and produce his own network specials, including Macho Men of the Movies (with Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, and Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Hollywood’s Leading Ladies (featuring Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sharon Stone, and Barbra Streisand).
Sheehan spent the 1970s and early 1980s at KCBS-TV, moved to KNBC-TV from 1984 to 1994, and returned to KCBS-TV from 1994 to 2004 to conclude his 33-year career in daily newscasting. For many years, he hosted three national specials annually—Summer Movie Magic, Holiday Movie Magic, and Academy Awards Movie Magic (frequently featuring Jack Nicholson)—all syndicated through his production and distribution company, Hollywood Close-Ups Inc., based in Studio City, California.
He had three children: Brian Sheehan, an actor turned owner of the Eclectic Wine Bar & Grill; Shannon, a real estate developer; and Kelly, a recording studio engineer and producer who worked with pop stars such as Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Tyrese Gibson, and Usher.
Until his passing in 2020, Sheehan and his wife, actress Susan Angelo, divided their time among Marina Del Rey, California; the Upper West Side of New York City; Indianapolis-Bloomington, Indiana; and his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
Sheehan's college education included Ohio State University and Notre Dame University before completing his studies at UCLA. After college, he worked as a newspaperman for United Press International, covering celebrities and politics and earning acclaim for insider reporting on Frank Sinatra’s “Rat Pack” involvement in John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign.
His magazine work appeared in Esquire, Playboy, Mademoiselle, and Los Angeles Magazine, featuring rare interviews with Henry Miller, author of Tropic of Capricorn; mental health pioneer Abraham Maslow; Gestalt Therapy founder Fritz Perls; and Zen interpreter Alan Watts.
In the late 1960s, Sheehan was producer, actor, and director with the Los Angeles Theater Now Troupe, producing West Coast premieres of plays by Edward Albee, Norman Mailer, and Jules Feiffer. His production of Feiffer’s Little Murders set box office records in 1969. Sheehan also authored the novel Before I Wake under the pen name David Dury, with Henry Miller serving as the book’s editor.
