Sam Rubin, a veteran journalist who anchored KTLA’s entertainment coverage for more than 30 years, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 64 years old.
KTLA news anchor Frank Buckley confirmed Rubin’s death early Friday afternoon. Fighting back tears as he announced the news on air, Buckley called his colleague’s death “shocking” and “difficult to comprehend at the moment.”
“Quite simply, Sam was KTLA,” he said, later adding, “The newsroom is in tears right now.”
Rubin was on the air on Thursday, interviewing actress Jane Seymour, but called in sick on Friday, with film critic Scott Mantz filling in. The network did not share additional details about Rubin’s death, but a source familiar with the incident told The Times that he suffered cardiac arrest at his West Valley home on Friday morning and was transported to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
“Sam was a giant in the local news industry and entertainment world, and a fixture on Los Angeles morning television for decades,” KTLA said of Rubin in a declaration shared on social media. “His laugh, charm and caring personality touched everyone who met him.”
Mantz wrote on social media that he was in “absolute shock” to learn of his colleague’s sudden death. “I always called him ‘The Godfather of Entertainment News,’ and that was true. An absolute legend [and] a generous person.”
Rubin was born on February 16, 1960, in San Diego, attended high school in Los Angeles and attended Occidental College, where he majored in American studies and rhetoric.
He joined KTLA’s “Morning News” program in 1991, earning a reputation for his captivating interviews and warm personality on and off the air. According to founding co-anchor Carlos Amezcua, Rubin contributed a sense of Los Angeles authenticity that the fledgling show needed.
Amezcua, 70, described Rubin as “the connective tissue” that helped him, meteorologist Mark Kriski and co-anchor Barbara Beck reach their target audience.
“The one thing that can always be said about Sam is that he helped ‘KTLA Morning News’ connect to Los Angeles as a native Angeleno who loved Los Angeles and knew the city better than anyone else on set,” said Amezcua , who joined KTLA the same year. like Rubin. “We had LA in our draft letters, and Sam always said we knew LA and LA knew us.”
What impressed him most was Rubin’s depth of knowledge. “He knew Hollywood and what was important to the entertainment industry,” said Amezcua, co-founder of digital streaming service Beond TV.
Over time, Amezcua said, viewers and even some industry insiders began to consider Rubin himself a celebrity.
“We used to make fun of him all the time for that,” Amezcua said. “I used to tell him, ‘You’re as big as the celebrities you’re interviewing.’ He would just laugh and say, ‘Come on,’ but I think deep down he knew that.”
But that level of local fame sometimes found Rubin in situations that pushed the boundaries of journalistic ethics, as in 1992, when he accepted a small role on “The Jackie Thomas Show” just weeks after helping publicize the sitcom by interviewing star Tom Arnold and his then-wife, Roseanne Barr – between the bed sheets.
“I can understand the objection to that, but I have criticized the Arnolds in the past and will do so in the future,” Rubin told The Times that December. “And it’s just a two-row ticket. I’m not making a lot of money from this. I could make a lot more selling a nasty article about the Arnolds somewhere.
For her work as the No. 1 reporter on the sitcom, Rubin said she was paid a scale — then $466 a day.
Beloved by his colleagues and many others in Tinseltown, Rubin also had a history with The Times that included several controversial back-and-forths between him and several of the paper’s writers.
Rubin wrote an article for The Times in February 1999, responding to Brian Lowry, who was then the channel’s TV columnist and is now a senior entertainment writer at CNN. In the run-up to that year’s Oscars, Lowry listed Rubin as part of a new generation of local TV reporters “who place so much emphasis on entertainment that reporting has become something of a joke.”
“Brian Lowry displays so much violence and rancor in his recent diatribe against me and the expansion of entertainment journalism that perhaps he just needs a little lesson in how those of us who are successful in this line of work actually do our jobs.” , Rubin wrote. in his response. “I never attended ‘Clown College,’ but since Mr. Lowry insists I’m my generation’s PT Barnum, here are some tips.”
Rubin advised Lowry to find a “genuine appreciation” for his audience and, most importantly, learn “the importance of tone.”
“I have to run now and put on my clown costume; I’m hosting another kid’s birthday party,” Rubin said in closing. “My clown costume, of course, hangs in my closet, right below the shelf that holds my three local Emmy awards.”
Two years later, again around Oscar time, The Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg wrote a story about the morning news competition in which he mentioned “weatherman Mark Kriski, who seems to live to be the kind of fun guy who you would see him hanged.” of a chandelier with a lampshade on his head at a cocktail party. And also… the show’s bean bag with lips, showbiz groupie Sam Rubin.
Rosenberg, now retired, noted that Rubin and Kriski tore up a copy of The Times containing a story about the battle between KTLA and rival KTTV, home of the No. 2 morning show “Good Day LA.” he reported that although KTLA was No. 1 in the morning, its overall ratings were down from the previous year.
Yet in the same column, Rosenberg called Rubin “someone who has become the one thing, more than anything else, that ‘Good Day LA’ is unable to match.”
In exchange, Rubin wrote a story in which he proposed a job swap with Rosenberg.
“I can imagine my week as a television critic for the Los Angeles Times. ‘Honey, could you adjust the La-Z-Boy? This massage feature is not working. And honey, could you put up another video from some obscure cable channel? Now let me see, where in the world am I going to find the time to write occasional reviews and my two scheduled all-week columns?’” Rubin wrote.
“Howard will experience a real change of pace. He can use my alarm clock – the one that’s set for 4am. Howard can choose which stories to report, write every word of his report himself, order the videotape he needs, select all the graphics, prepare, and create a joke or two that pokes fun at his bosses at the LA Times. Of course, he will have to do this for five days straight.”
Away from TV cameras and media squabbles, Rubin’s life revolved around his family, former classmate Amezcua said.
“I have five children and they all knew Sam and his family, and Sam was very generous with his time,” Amezcua said. “He was a good family man and they loved him. We all loved him.”
Former news director Jason Ball, who worked at KTLA from 2008 to 2021 before retiring, called Rubin “larger than life” and “a lion” who “deserves to be honored.”
Ball said he occasionally butted heads with Rubin on show ideas, but didn’t mind when his colleague “pushed him out of his comfort zone.”
“Sometimes you didn’t know what he was going to do, which could be a challenge for me,” Ball said. “But I always knew he had the heart of the show in mind and I really don’t know how KTLA will function without him.”
As the face of KTLA’s entertainment coverage, Rubin has won over Angeleno audiences, including celebrity viewers Tom Hanks and Henry Winkler.
“He made you feel special every time,” Winkler said in a call with KTLA on Friday. “He made every human being feel so special and made them open up like a flower.”
He also had a way of turning chaff into wheat. “There are a lot of stupid, boring celebrities out there,” “Alias” actor Greg Grunberg said by phone on Friday’s broadcast. “And boy, did he make everyone look interesting.”
The San Diego-born reporter has also brought his industry knowledge to overseas platforms. He appeared regularly on BBC Television and contributed regularly to Australia’s Triple M radio and Channel 9 Television, according to KTLA’s website.
Author of biographies of former first lady Jacqueline Onassis and “Rosemary’s Baby” star Mia Farrow, Rubin has won several local Emmy awards for his entertainment coverage. He also received a Golden Mike Award for entertainment reporting and an award from Associated Press Television and Radio for his work. Other accolades included honors from the Southern California Broadcasters Assn., the Los Angeles Press Club and the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
“He was born to be a radio presenter. He was the best broadcaster there is,” Eric Spillman, a KTLA reporter and longtime colleague of Rubin, said during Friday’s broadcast.
Outside of his on-air work, Rubin was a founding member of the Broadcast Film Critics Assn., owned a self-described television production company, and supported several non-profit organizations.
Rubin is survived by his wife, Leslie Gale Shuman, and four children.
