Don Imus life and biography

Don Imus is an American radio host, humorist, philanthropist and writer. His nationally-syndicated talk show, Imus in the Morning, is broadcast throughout the United States by Citadel Media and relayed on television by the Fox Business Network.

John Donald Imus Jr. was born in Riverside, California, the son of Frances E. (née Moore) and John Donald Imus, Sr., older brother of Fred Imus. He was raised on a sprawling cattle ranch called The Willows near Kingman, Arizona. He served in the Marine Corps as a bugler from 1957 to 1960.

Imus battled alcoholism during his early career in New York, but in 1987 finally pursued effective treatment. In 1988, with his cocaine and alcohol addictions now legendary in show business, Imus reshaped his show from strictly comedy into a forum for political issues, charitable causes and news-based parodies.

In 1979, he divorced his first wife, Harriet. He married his second wife, Deirdre Coleman on December 17, 1994. He has two stepdaughters that he adopted from his first marriage, two daughters from that marriage, and one son, Frederick Wyatt (nicknamed Wyatt, born July 3, 1998), from his current marriage. Both Don and Deirdre Imus are vegetarians.

Imus won four Marconi Awards, three for Major Market Personality of the Year (1990, 1992 and 1997) and one for Network Syndicated Personality (1994).

Imus was named one of the 25 Most Influential People in America in Time magazine (April 21, 1997).

He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2002, Talkers magazine ranked Imus as one of the 25 greatest radio talk show hosts of all time.

Imus in the Morning was canceled in April of 2007 after Imus described the Rutgers University women's basketball team on the air as "nappy-headed hos." Imus later apologized, calling his own words "thoughtless and stupid," but the apology wasn't enough to save his job. However, he returned to the air with Imus in the Morning in December 2007, this time on ABC Radio Networks.

On 16 March 2009, Imus told his radio listeners that he had been diagnosed with stage II prostate cancer. He said the disease had been caught early and that "the prognosis couldn't be better"... Imus has had a long-standing public feud with fellow DJ Howard Stern... Imus served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1957 to 1959.

Author of books:

- Awkward, Michael. Burying Don Imus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
- What the furor surrounding Don Imus shows us about unresolved race relations in the United States.

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