Bobby Rivers, an amiable and playful television host, entertainment reporter and film critic, died Tuesday in Minneapolis. He is 70.
The cause was a complication of cancer, said his brother Tony.
Bobby Rivers got his start in television on “Good Morning Milwaukee” in 1979. “It was huge,” his brother said in an interview. “It was a wonderful springboard for him. People got to see his talent, his intelligence, his humor, his ability to turn a phrase, and I think people were blown away.”
He moved to national TV in the early days of the VH1 cable music channel, where he had his own talk show, “Watch Bobby Rivers.”
That show was praised by critic Stephen Holden in The New York Times. “Mr. Rivers is a disarmingly sweet, quirky personality who exudes a benign sense of mischief as he joshes with stars,” wrote Mr. Holden in 1988. “A nerdy, post-collegiate Eddie Murphy with no axes to grind, he’s a master interviewer with a gift for light, impromptu banter.”
Mr.’s interview style is friendly. Rivers, and he was always joking with his guests. But that didn’t stop him from bringing up difficult subjects, and his geniality could elicit revealing responses. In the late 1980s, for example, he called Norman Mailer to account for sexism with such a big smile that Mailer hardly noticed.
In the 1990s he became an entertainment reporter for local New York stations, appearing on “Weekend Today in New York” on WNBC and “Good Day New York” on WNYW.
In the 2000s, he hosted “Top 5,” a food-oriented variation on the Top 40 countdown show, on the Food Network. He also worked in radio and as a movie critic on “Lifetime Live.”
“Bobby was more than a TV personality,” actor and writer Gregory G. Allen, who interviewed Mr. Rivers and working on a book with him, wrote in Facebook. He was, Mr. Allen said, a “walking encyclopedia” of film and television.
However, at times, his many talents helped hold him back, his brother said: “I don’t think the managers or producers knew what to do with him. ‘You specialize in many things, so how do we use you?’”
“He has so much,” he added, “and for anyone to say ‘We just want this,’ it’s like clipping his wings.”
Robert Bennett Rivers Jr. was born. on September 20, 1953, in Los Angeles, to Robert Bennett Rivers and Barbara Theresa Rivers. He grew up in South-Central Los Angeles and graduated from Marquette University.
He had a love for classic entertainment from a young age. “We’d sit in front of the TV and watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers,” Tony Rivers said.
Since 2011, he writes a blog, Bobby Rivers TV, about movies and entertainment. His last post there, on Nov. 19, is a rave about “Rustin,” the movie about civil rights leader Bayard Rustin.
“I’m actually old enough to remember being a little kid and watching the March on Washington with my parents when it was a live telecast on CBS,” Mr. Rivers. “I remember seeing tall, slim Bayard Rustin with salt and pepper hair and wearing horn-rimmed glasses speaking loudly and enthusiastically and then standing behind Dr. King.”
“For all his achievements and contributions, Rustin has been pushed into the shadows because of his sexuality,” he added. “In July 2020, I blogged a post about our need for a Bayard Rustin biopic. Well … now we have one. And it was worth the wait.”
Mr. Rivers, who is himself Black and gay, has not always been accepted in the industry.
“A Black gay man is not something they know what to do with,” Gino Salomone, a friend and former colleague, told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In the wake of her death, Whoopi Goldberg greeted by Mr. Rivers on social media as a “pioneer” who “brought SO MUCH to the table.”
Despite the obstacles he faced, Tony Rivers said, “He was very proud of who he was, and people respected that.”
Mr. Rivers never married or had children. In addition to his brother, he is survived by a sister, Betsy Rivers, and a cousin, Alonzo Brooks.
John Yoon contributed reporting.
