Early Life & Career
Harris, whose real name was Roy Darwin Humphrey, was born near Vidalia, Georgia. In 1957, Harris worked first for WVOP, a radio station located near the place of his birth. He then began delivering television weather reports at a station in North Carolina. From 1964 to 1968, Harris worked at WTVT in Tampa, Florida as a staff announcer. From 1968 to 1969 he worked at WTOP in Washington, DC. In December 1969, he began working as a reporter and news anchor at WFAA-TV in Dallas, TX. From 1970 to 1972 Harris concurrently co-hosted a live morning TV newsmagazine called "News 8 etc..." Harris quit WFAA in 1973 following a dispute with management.
In 1973, He began work for NBC-owned KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. In 1975, NBC promoted Harris to the network news staff, where he covered the fall of Saigon and reported from the trenches in Vietnam. American soldiers referred to Harris as "Mr. Lucky" because Harris managed to dodge bullets and avoid land mines.
Harris won four Emmys and the a DuPont/Columbia Award. In the spring of 1978, before traveling to Jonestown, Harris broadcast an investigative piece on international terrorism that ran on NBC Nightly News.
Read more about this topic: Don Harris (journalist)
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