Profile: Mike Wallace
CBS News Correspondent

"One day at Ann Arbor, at the University of Michigan, I walked into the radio station operation there, and I was hooked. I suddenly realized that was going to be my métier. I didn't know how I was going to make it, but I knew damn well what I was going to be."

What Mike Wallace became was one of the most influential figures in the history of broadcast journalism. An unexceptional student, insecure about his looks, he found his voice in front of a radio microphone, and followed his love of broadcasting from Detroit, to Chicago, through service in the U.S. Navy, to New York City and the national television networks.

From his ground-breaking television interview programs of the 1950s to his 38 seasons as co-host of 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace exemplified the most uncompromising standard of American journalism, asking the difficult questions and shining the light of day in the dark corners of American society. Big business, the government, the military, and a host of other powerful institutions all flinched under the glare of Wallace's camera lights.

Mike Wallace was co-editor and co-host of 60 Minutes from its first broadcast in 1968. The show became the longest-running, most popular prime time news program in the history of television, driven by Mike Wallace's relentless pursuit of the truth. In the process, Mike Wallace wrote the book for a generation of news correspondents, showing them the way to expose miscarriages of justice, commercial scams and corruption in high places. Through it all, he held the attention of the American public with reporting that was as entertaining as it was informative.