David Frost, known for Nixon interview, dies at 74

Frost: “I think people need to hear it, and I think unless you say it, you’re going to be haunted for the rest of your life.”

Nixon: “I let down my friends. I let down the country. I let down our system of government and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but will think it is all too corrupt and the rest. …. And I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life.”

Frost: “So what you are saying is that there are certain situations … where the president can decide that it’s in the best interest of the nation or something, and do something illegal?”

Nixon: “Well when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.”

Frost: “By definition?”

Nixon: “Exactly.”

Muhammad Ali, 1974

Frost interviewed the legendary heavyweight boxer, then 32, inside a boxing ring, ahead of his landmark fight with George Foreman, when most people wrongly thought Ali would lose. But Ali was animated and brimming with confidence in the interview.

Ali: “I think it is befitting that I go out of boxing just like I came in, defeating a big, bad monster that nobody could destroy… Listen David, when I meet this man, if you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whip Foreman’s behind.”

The boxer continued, partly talking directly to the camera, then standing up to caricature Foreman: “Listen, George Foreman, people are afraid of George Foreman. They talk about how hard he hits. The world has been deceived. You listen to me. You listen to me now. I never told you wrong. The man don’t hit hard.”

Margaret Thatcher, 1985

In 1985 Frost grilled the prime minister about the sinking of the Argentine ship Belgrano by a British submarine that killed 323 sailors during the Falklands conflict.

As Frost pressed on with questions about what had happened, a visibly ruffled Thatcher sternly defended her decision to attack the ship. Thatcher finally said in frustration: “Do you think, Mr. Frost, that I spend my days prowling round the pigeon holes of the Ministry of Defense to look at the chart of each and every ship? If you do you must be bonkers.”

Bill Clinton

In an undated clip shown by the BBC Sunday, Frost was seen interviewing the former U.S. president about his relationship with Monica Lewinski.

Frost: “Did you love her?”

Clinton responded: “No. I don’t think that’s what that was about. On either side. But I liked her very much.”

David Frost had sparred with Richard Nixon for hours, recording a series of interviews with the former president three years after he stepped down in disgrace over Watergate. But as the sessions drew to a close, Frost realized he still lacked something: an acknowledgement by Nixon that he had been wrong.

Nixon had admitted making mistakes, but Frost put down his clipboard and pressed his subject on whether that was enough. Americans, he said, wanted to hear him own up to his misdeeds and acknowledge abusing the power of the White House.

“Unless you say it, you’re going to be haunted for the rest of your life,” the British broadcaster told Nixon.

What came next were some of the most extraordinary comments ever made by a politician on television. For Frost, who died Saturday, it was the signature moment of an illustrious television career that spanned half a century and included interviews with a long list of the world’s most powerful and famous, including virtually every British prime minister and U.S. president of his time.

A natural at TV hosting, he seemed to effortlessly inhabit the worlds of entertainment and politics. As a satirist, a game show host and a journalist, he disarmed others with unfailing affability and personal charm.

“He had an extraordinary ability to draw out the interviewee, knew exactly where the real story lay and how to get at it,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said. Frost, he added, “was also a thoroughly kind and good-natured man.”

Blair’s former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, added on Twitter that Frost was one of the best interviewers “because his sheer niceness could lull you into saying things you didn’t intend.”

Frost, 74, died of a heart attack Saturday night aboard the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, where he was due to give a speech, his family said in a statement sent to the BBC. The cruise company Cunard said its vessel left the English port of Southampton on Saturday for a 10-day cruise in the Mediterranean.

Prime Minister David Cameron, one of the first public figures to send condolences, called Frost “both a friend and a fearsome interviewer.” BBC executives lauded him as “a titan of broadcasting” — both for beginning a tradition of satirizing politics and for establishing a more confrontational interview style.

Frost began his career almost fresh out of college as the host of an early 1960s BBC satirical news show “That Was The Week That Was,” then a pioneering program that ruthlessly lampooned politicians. The show gained a wide following, and Frost’s signature greeting, “Hello, good evening and welcome,” was often mimicked.

Frost was popular in Britain and was gaining a foothold on U.S. television, but it wasn’t until 1977, when he secured the interviews with Nixon, that he became internationally known.

The interviews were groundbreaking for both Frost and the ex-president, who was trying to salvage his reputation. At the time, they were the most widely watched news interviews in TV history.

In the end, Nixon relented.

“I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life,” he said.

The face-off went on to spawn a hit play and in 2008, a new generation was introduced to Frost’s work with the Oscar-nominated movie “Frost/Nixon,” starring Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon.

Over the years, his interviewees included a wide-ranging roster of politicians, from Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev to Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, as well as leading entertainment figures such as Orson Welles and the Beatles.

He is survived by his wife, Carina, and their three sons.