Peter Jennings Biography

Peter Jennings was the chief anchor of ABC-TV’s World News Tonight from 1983 until shortly before his death in 2005. For many of those years he went head-to-head with two other longstanding network anchors, NBC’s Tom Brokaw and CBS’s Dan Rather. A Canadian by birth, Jennings was known for his dry, understated delivery and for his international outlook, honed by years as a foreign correspondent. Jennings also anchored the ABC evening news from 1965-67, which at the time made him the youngest network anchor in TV history. After a long period in other roles, he was named the sole anchor of World News Tonight in 1983. Jennings announced in April of 2005 that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, but would continue to work as much as possible. He never returned to the air, passing away four months later.