Syndicated columnist George Maksian, who wrote about film, television and celebrities for 44 years at the Daily News, has died. He was 94.
From his perch in the iconic News Building on E. 42nd St., Maksian, who died on May 23, interviewed and covered just about every stage and screen luminary whose name was ever in bold.
The list included Ed Sullivan, Howard Stern, Johnny Carson, Danny Aiello, Barbara Walters, David Letterman and Bette Midler.
Among Maksian’s favorites was TV star Mike Connors, who played a private detective in the long-running CBS drama “Mannix.”
Connors, like Maksian, was born to parents who escaped the Armenian genocide. Armenian culture and causes were as important to Maksian as movie openings and red carpet appearances.
“He generously went out of his way to support arts and culture in the Armenian community,” said Maksian’s nephew, Daniel Gadarian. “He did a lot for the church.
“He worked tirelessly to advocate for that. That was very important to him.”
Gadarian recalled childhood summers traveling from Florida to New York City to visit his Uncle George.
He remembered all the gifts Maksian received from stars and publicists hoping for a good word in the newspaper. Gadarian said Maksian sent most of them back, but there was one well-known TV anchor whose trinkets he never trashed — Barbara Walters.
“He made one exception for her,” Gadarian said. “She sent the best gift baskets.”
But not everyone was a fan. Maksian said sportscaster Howard Cosell tried to get him fired after he caught Cosell in a lie about his boxing coverage.
Maksian said Cosell had been whining about being forced by his bosses at ABC to continue covering boxing despite his concerns about the sport’s brutality. But Maksian learned that Cosell’s contract allowed him to turn down any assignment.
Maksian put it in print, and Cosell fired off an angry four-page letter to the scribe’s editors.
Maksian, born in 1929, was one of four children raised by his determined parents in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen after his mother and father immigrated to the United States in the years following World War I.
Maksian helped in his parents’ grocery store business and sang in the choir at St. Illuminator’s Armenian Cathedral.
After graduating from Manhattan’s High School of Commerce, Maksian got a job as a copy boy at the Daily News for $18 a week. At the same time, he studied at City College and New York University.
From there, he worked his way up to becoming a general reporter and then a columnist on what, at the time, was the largest circulation daily newspaper in the country.
“I was the token Armenian on the editorial staff,” he told an interviewer years later. “Today, however, it’s diversified, with all nationalities. I don’t know why they accepted me. Maybe they just needed a copy boy, and it was the right time and the right place.”
When an opening appeared in the radio and television department, Maksian took center stage. His column became syndicated and appeared in newspapers across the country.
“People like Johnny Carson and Howard Stern gave me so much material to write about,” Maksian said in the interview. “Carson would sneeze, and my story would go onto page one.”
Maksian’s funeral will be held at 10 a.m. on June 6 at St. Thomas Armenian church in Tenafly, N.J.
