Charlie Rose is a renowned host, known for his elegant, handsome, fiercely intelligent, and inquisitive nature. Born Charles Peete Rose, Jr. on January 5, 1942, in Henderson, North Carolina, he was the only child of tobacco farmers Margaret (Frazier) and Charles Peete Rose, Sr.
Growing up, Rose helped out in his family's general store, where he developed a strong work ethic. After graduating from high school, he attended Duke University as a pre-med student, where he was active in extracurricular activities, including working with children in a Head Start program and interning in the office of North Carolina senator B. Everett Jordan.
Rose's experiences as an intern turned him into a "political junkie," and he changed his major to history. After receiving his A.B. degree in 1964, he entered the Duke University School of Law but soon realized that the practice of law held little interest for him. Instead, he began taking classes at the New York University Graduate School of Business and accepted a job at Bankers Trust.
Through his wife, Rose became friendly with people employed in broadcasting and developed a passionate interest in the broadcast media. He landed a job as a weekend reporter for WPIX-TV in New York City and later became the managing editor of the PBS series "Bill Moyers' International Report."
Rose's big break came when he became the executive producer of Bill Moyers' Journal, a PBS documentary and conversation series. He then became the correspondent for U.S.A.: People and Politics, a PBS political magazine series, and won a 1976 Peabody Award for his work on "A Conversation with Jimmy Carter."
After leaving NBC, Rose served as a co-host with AM/Chicago and later became the program manager for KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth. He was given a time slot to host his own talk show, which became Charlie Rose in 1991.
Rose's goal was to secure national syndication, and he moved Charlie Rose to Washington, D.C. in 1981. He hosted another weekly interview show for WRC-TV and later became the anchor of CBS News Roundup, an interview program that aired between 2:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M.
In 1990, Rose left CBS to anchor "Personalities," a syndicated program produced by Fox Television, but he broke his contract after just six weeks. He then approached PBS-affiliated station Thirteen/WNET-TV in New York City with a proposal for a new interview show, which premiered on September 30, 1991.
Charlie Rose has interviewed a wide range of guests, including President Nelson Mandela, President Bill Clinton, Salman Rushdie, Madonna, Bono of U2, Bill Gates, Meryl Streep, Warren Beatty, and countless others. According to Rose, he has conducted over 100,000 interviews.
Rose is divorced and splits his time between a rented townhouse in Manhattan and a farm near Oxford, North Carolina. He is known for his simple, elegant style and his ability to ask pertinent questions, forcing the essence of his guests to come out.
