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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 25 auguSt 2018
Robin Leach of 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' dies

By REGINA GARCIA CANO often became friends with
ANDREW DALTON the celebrities he covered.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Robin Then, in 1984, he landed
Leach, whose voice crys- "Lifestyles of the Rich and
tallized the opulent 1980s Famous" and gained his
on TV's "Lifestyles of the Rich own fame.
and Famous," died Friday. The gaudy show became
He was 76 wildly popular, but never
Leach's family said through with critics.
a public relations firm that "They wrote that television
he died in Las Vegas, where had reached an all-time-
he made his home. low," Leach told The Huff-
Leach had a stroke in No- ington Post. "But I looked at
vember while on vaca- the ratings every Monday
tion in Mexico that led to morning, and I was rubbing
a months-long recovery, my hands with glee."
much of which he spent He was also an executive
at the Cleveland Clinic in producer and occasional
Ohio before returning to writer on the show, and
Las Vegas in June. hosted a brief spinoff, "Run-
The Las Vegas Review-Jour- away with the Rich and Fa-
nal, which ran Leach's col- mous."
umns before he became For the show's final year,
ill, said he suffered another with producers looking to
stroke Monday. liven up the aging property,
"Champagne wishes and he had a younger co-host,
caviar dreams" was Leach's actress Shari Belafonte. The
sign-off at the end of every show was retitled "Lifestyles
episode of his syndicated with Robin Leach and Shari
show's decade-long run Belafonte" but the new look
that began in 1984. In this Oct. 17, 2013 file photo, Robin Leach attends the Food Network's 20th birthday party in New didn't save it.
The catchphrase captured York. In 1999, Leach went to Las
excesses and sometimes Associated Press Vegas to work with celeb-
gaudy style of the 1980s, a rity chefs at the Venetian
time before oil billionaires, sneaker-wearing tech ex- Leach appeared occa- the years, with Harry Shear- casino-resort, and made
titans of industry and Wall ecs as the world's richest sionally on the show, but er as a subdued Leach the move permanent, be-
Street traders gave way to people. he and his unmistakable hosting "Lifestyles of the coming a fixture in the city
English-accent narrated Relatives of the Rich and as he covered the destina-
throughout, taking wishful Famous" in the 1980s, and tion's entertainment and
viewers on tours of man- Dana Carvey as a brash, lifestyles for America Online
sions with diamond-crusted shouting Leach on "Week- and his own website. He
chandeliers, yachts with end Update" in the 1990s. also wrote for the Las Ve-
Jacuzzis, and champagne Even decades later, in gas Sun and, most recently,
that ran to four figures. It 2011, Snoop Dogg spot- for the Las Vegas Review-
was much like rap videos ted Leach at a news con- Journal.
would do in future de- ference in Las Vegas and He made frequent appear-
cades. was thrilled, rushing to grab ances on the celebrity re-
Leach and producer Al the mic and breaking out ality TV circuit, hosting VH-
Masini coined the catch- his impression, touting his 1's "The Surreal Life: Fame
phrase and conceived of career earnings in an over- Games" and appearing
the show. the-top English accent. on the celebrity editions
"He asked me if I could get "Lifestyles of the Rich and of "Wife Swap" and "Who
magnates T. Boone Pickens Famous" was the core Wants to be a Millionaire."
or Sam Walton to do the of Leach's career that He was among the found-
show," Leach told The Huff- spanned six decades and ers of the Food Network,
ington Post in 2016. "In my included stints with CNN, selling his equity for a big
naivete, I said, 'Of course.' People magazine, Enter- payday when the channel
And thus, 'Lifestyles of the tainment Tonight and the took off.
Rich and Famous.'" Daily Mail, where he began Married once and di-
Leach said in later years as a writer in Britain at 18. vorced, Leach spent much
that someone still shouted In the mid-1970s, he tried of his later years in the
"champagne wishes and out TV as a regular con- company of his three sons,
caviar dreams" at him al- tributor to "AM Los Angeles" Steven, Rick and Greg, and
most daily. He was con- with hosts Regis Philbin and several grandchildren.
stantly parodied, and like Sarah Purcell, and found his "There is this image of a guy
other distinctive voices of calling. He became a reg- in a hot tub, drinking cham-
the age like Arnold Schwar- ular on television's morning pagne with two buxom
zenegger and Howard Co- news and entertainment blondes," Leach told the
sell, everyone had a Leach shows, practicing a sort of Las Vegas Sun in 2011. "But
impression. tabloid journalism that was that is not the real me. I am
"Saturday Night Live" consis- more celebratory and light- a father, and I am a grand-
tently satirized him through hearted than tawdry. He father, too."q