Bobby Rivers, trailblazing gay Black TV personality, dies at 70

Bobby Rivers, a pioneering gay Black TV personality whose credits encompassed entertainment reporter, VJ, actor, talk show host and film critic, including at local New York stations, died Tuesday in Minneapolis.  He was 70.

The cause was complications of lung cancer and a series of ministrokes, said his sister, Betsy Rivers, of nearby St. Paul, with whom he had lived for the past eight years.

“He was always funny, easy to be around, and he had lot of intent behind what he said and what he did,” she told Newsday. “I’m proud of him.”

“He was funny, kind and very, very smart and engaging,” said his friend Dianne Collins, a Manhattan film-industry executive. “He really knew film. And he always had funny stories, especially about his family.” As for his trailblazing as a gay national-TV personality, who came out in the 1990s, “He took it in stride,” she says.

“He was a true pioneer who in my opinion never quite got his due but was always championing others,” said filmmaker and film critic Mike Sargent, another friend. Whoopi Goldberg on Instagram wrote, “All hail this pioneer Bobby Rivers … He brought SO much to the table.” Katie Couric tweeted, “Bobby was a terrific guy and wonderfully warm, funny and smart.”

Robert Bennett Rivers Jr. was born Sept. 20, 1953, in Los Angeles, the eldest of three siblings, and grew up in the city’s Watts neighborhood. His namesake father was a postal worker, and mother, Barbara, a registered nurse. “We were just a close-knit family,” Betsy Rivers recalls, “and he was always watching old movies on TV. I always wanted to go play instead, and he’d say, ‘No, it’s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers!’”

Rivers, who wrote thoughtfully about the experience of being a Black Catholic, attended the elementary school Mother of Sorrows and the college prep program at the all-boys Verbum Dei High School. He moved to Milwaukee in 1972 to attend Marquette University, graduating with a degree in broadcasting.

Rivers entered that field with a job writing weekend newscasts for local radio station WRIT-FM. “The station manager actually said, ‘We need more diversity in the hiring quota,’ and that's how I got hired,” Rivers recalled to the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project. After applying five times at WQFM-FM (now WLDB-FM), Rivers was hired as a morning news reporter.

In 1979, he joined Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate, WISN, as what the station called “the city's first Black film critic on television.” He additionally contributed to the station’s entertainment-news program, “PM Magazine,” and, by 1984, was co-hosting its live midday talk show, “More.”

The following year, Rivers joined WPIX/11 in New York, hosting collected episodes of “The Honeymooners” and “The Twilight Zone,” among other on-air work, and the following year launching an eponymous late-night talk show on the station. In 1987, he moved to VH1 as a VJ and as the host of the well-received interview program “Watch Bobby Rivers,” landing such guests as Paul McCartney, Meryl Streep and Robin Williams.

After he moved on in 1990, his peripatetic career saw him host the syndicated relationship game show “Bedroom Buddies,” guest-host occasionally on CNBC's “Talk Live,” and report on entertainment for the WNBC/4 morning news show “Weekend Today in New York.” From 1994 to 1999, he was a regular on WNYW/5’s live morning show, “Good Day New York.”

Rivers later became the weekly film critic and entertainment contributor on the Lifetime weekday program “Lifetime Live” and on Whoopi Goldberg’s live morning radio, syndicated from New York City.  He also hosted Food Network’s “Top 5” series and subsequent specials. As an actor, he played bit parts on series including “The Equalizer” and “The Sopranos.” From 2011 on, he reviewed films and wrote essays and did commentary on his blog and his YouTube channel.

Rivers is survived by his sister and by their younger brother, Tony Rivers, of Lincoln, California. He will be cremated, his sister said, and plans for any memorial are uncertain.