This article is about Edward Sullivan, the entertainer. For Sir Edward Sullivan, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, see Edward Sullivan (lawyer)

Ed Sullivan (September 28, 1902 – October 13, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the emcee of a popular TV variety show that was at its height of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s.

Sullivan was originally a newspaper sportswriter and theater columnist for the New York Daily News. His column concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip. He also did show business news broadcasts on radio. Sullivan continued writing for The News throughout his broadcasting career.

In 1948 the CBS network hired Sullivan to do a weekly Sunday night TV variety show which became The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from CBS Studio 50 on Broadway in NewYork City, which in 1967 was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater (and is now the home of The Late Show with David Letterman).

Sullivan himself seemed to have little acting ability and his mannerisms on camera were somewhat awkward and often caricatured by comedians (who called him "Great Stone Face" due to his deadpan delivery). Columnist Harriet Van Horne alleged that "he got where he is not by having a personality, but by having no personality; he is the commonest common denominator." Sullivan replied with a short note:

Dear Miss Van Horne,

You bitch.

Sincerely, Ed Sullivan [1]

Somehow Sullivan still seemed to fit the show; he appeared to the audience as an average guy who brought the great acts of show business to their home televisions.

In the 1950s and 1960s Sullivan was a respected starmaker because of the number of performers that became household names after appearing on the show. He had a knack for identifying and promoting top talent and paid a great deal of money to secure that talent for his show.

There was another side to him, he could be very quick to take offense if he felt that he had been crossed and could hold a grudge for a long time.

Jackie Mason and The Doors became intimately familiar with that negative side of him. The former was banned from the series in 1969 when Sullivan gestured to wrap things up and Mason replied on live television with the finger. The latter was banned in 1967 after they were asked to remove the lyric "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" from their song "Light My Fire," (as CBS censors believed it was too overt a reference to drug use) and sang the song with the lyrics intact.

In August of 1956 he was injured in an automobile accident that occurred near his country home in Southbury, Connecticut and had to take a medical leave from the show missing the September 8 appearance of Elvis Presley on his show (something he earlier stated never would happen but he later changed his mind). The fact he had to play catch up to featuring such a star on his show made him determined to get the next big sensation first. In 1964, he achieved that with the first live American appearance of The Beatles.

Sullivan paid for the funeral of dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson out of his own pocket. He also defied pressure to exclude African American musicians from appearing on his show.

Sullivan is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Blvd.

• Ed Sullivan