Actors And Actresses We Sadly Lost In 2020

When Regis Philbin passed away of natural causes at age 88, he left the planet as one of the most familiar faces ever to emanate from a television screen. Reege, as friends and fans called him, was no overnight success; it wasn't until he was paired with Kathie Lee Gifford for daytime smash Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee in 1988, noted his People obituary, that he became a national sensation and a daytime perennial for decades.

In the 2000s, at an age when most folks his age would have been contemplating retirement, Philbin was enjoying even bigger success on primetime thanks to ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, a hit game show of such immense popularity that, at one point, the network was running it five times each week. As Fortune pointed out, the show generated a staggering $1 billion in revenue during its first two years. Notably, Philbin also acted, playing himself in shows like Mad About You, Spin City, and Ugly Betty, as well as portraying characters in Hope & Faith and Hot in Cleveland.

Back in 2004, Philbin set a Guinness World Record for being the person to log the most hours on television. Reflecting on at all that time spent in front of the camera, Philbin said to Associated Press (via Today), "Now it's all a big blur," adding, "When you look back that's a lot of hours on TV."