Newspaper columnist and television personality Irv "Kup" Kupcinet, who brought the inside scoop on Hollywood celebrities, foreign princes and presidents to Chicago audiences for more than half a century, died Monday. He was 91. Kupcinet, whose "Kup's Column" appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital due to respiratory complications from pneumonia, a hospital spokeswoman said.
"Irv Kupcinet is probably the most significant media personality in the history of Chicago because his impact was not only through his daily newspaper column, but also on television for 25 years," said Bruce DuMont, founder and president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "He was a man who loved celebrities and celebrity."
"Irv Kupcinet was as closely identified with Chicago as the Picasso, the Hancock Building and the Sears Tower -- and he was an important part of this city long before they were," Mayor Richard Daley said. Befriending many of the famous people he wrote about, Kupcinet's gossip column first appeared in 1943 and celebrated its 60th anniversary in May 2003.
For years he competed with famed New York gossip columnist Walter Winchell, reporting on the doings of the rich and famous on both coasts. But Kupcinet also acknowledged his hometown's personalities with items about Chicago trucking tycoons, business magnates and pharmacy moguls.
"I pride myself in not abusing people, not using the column to ridicule people," he told The New York Times in 2002. "I stayed away from being nasty as much as I could. Unless somebody really deserved it."
Kupcinet also helped establish the late-night talk-show genre in Chicago with his award-winning "At Random," later called "Kup's Show." The show, which debuted in 1959, aired every Saturday night for 27 years.
Always introduced by Kupcinet's trademark phrase "the lively art of conversation," the show's guests included former Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter, Sen. Robert Kennedy, Yul Brynner and Liberace.
Kupcinet once said he knew as a child he would be in the newspaper business. His first job was as a sports writer for the Chicago Times, where he went to work after a shoulder injury cut short his first NFL season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1935. The Times later merged to create the Sun-Times.
After movie columnist Hedda Hopper died in 1966, Kupcinet was invited to move to Los Angeles. He chose to stay in Chicago, saying he and his wife could not face living in the city where their daughter Karyn, an actress, had been killed. The crime was never solved.
The late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington renamed a bridge over the Chicago River to honor Kupcinet.
Kupcinet's wife, Essee, died in 2001. He is survived by his son, Jerry, and two grandchildren.
