Longtime "Tagesschau" anchorman Léon Huber dead
Longtime Tagesschau anchorman Léon Huber is dead. The 79-year-old died after a long illness, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF announced on Monday evening.
Huber already succumbed to a kidney ailment on November 27, as close acquaintances of the former "Tagesschau" anchor confirmed to Swiss television. He was buried in a Zurich cemetery on December 3. For 33 years, the popular anchorman was the face of "Tagesschau," from 1963 until his retirement in 1996, and was often called "Mister Tagesschau" for that reason. Typical of the trained actor were his almost perfect pronunciation and his calm manner. The May 3, 1981 edition of Tagesschau was legendary, for example, when masked demonstrators stormed into the studio and displayed a banner reading "Freedom and Sunshine for Giorgio Bellini". Giorgio Bellini from Ticino was considered a member of the Zurich youth movement. He had been arrested at the time. Huber remained very calm and, after a brief interruption, continued to read the news as if nothing had happened. Also remembered by many was the scene when the Tagesschau presenter stuck out his tongue shortly before the start of the broadcast in August 1990 - but the sequence had already been recorded. (SDA)
