FAMILY FEUD Host Richard Dawson Dies at 79

Deadline.com reports that longtime host of the popular game show FAMILY FEUD Richard Dawson passed away on Saturday, June 2 at age 79. According to the report, the actor died at Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from esophageal cancer.  Dawson's son Gary posted on his Facebook page that his father “was surrounded by his family” when he passed.

Born in England as Colin Lionel Emm, Dawson had a small role in The Dick Van Dyke Show but was most well known for his role in Hogan’s Heroes in which he portrayed POW Corporal Peter Newkirk. He was also a regular on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and The New Dick Van Dyke Show and was a panelist on the game shows I’ve Got a Secret and  Match Game ’73.

He began hosting ABC's 'Family Feud' in 1976 where he became well known for kissing the female contestants “for luck and for love.” The show aired until 1985, and won Dawson a 1978 Daytime Emmy Award for best game show host. He returned to host the show's syndicated version in 1995.

Dawson also played the fictional host of a game show in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Running Man. He married a Family Feud contestant, Gretchen Johnson, who competed on the show in 1981. They had a daughter named Shannon Nicole Dawson. Dawson also had two sons, Mark Dawson and Gary Dawson, from an earlier marriage to actress Diana Dors.

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