Regis Francis Xavier Philbin was an American television presenter, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest-working man in show business", he held the Guinness World Record for the most hours spent on US television.
Philbin was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, he served in the US Navy and got his television start serving as a page for The Tonight Show in the 1950s. Philbin got his first network television exposure in 1967 as Joey Bishop's sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show. He is most widely known as the co-host of the New York City–based nationally syndicated talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, starting in 1988, which became Live! with Regis and Kelly in 2001, and continued as Live! with Kelly after Philbin's departure in 2011. He is also well known as the original host of the American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the most-watched prime-time series of the 1999–2000 US television season.
Philbin also hosted Million Dollar Password and the first season of America's Got Talent. Regis Philbin died on July 25th, 2020 in Greenwich, Connecticut of natural causes related to coronary artery disease; he was 88 years old.
