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Lassally and his family survived the Holocaust before moving to the United States
NEED TO KNOW
- Peter Lassally has died at the age of 93
- The legendary producer worked on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
- Lassally came to the United States after he, his sister and his mother survived the Holocaust
Peter Lassally, the legendary executive producer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, has died at the age of 93. He was also called “the host whisperer” because of his ability to work well with talent.
NBC announced Lassally’s death, writing, “When Johnny Carson and David Letterman needed counsel and an honest opinion, they immediately went to Peter Lassally, the professor of late night. His relationship to each of these giants was immeasurable and both of them would undoubtedly say his contribution to their success was so impactful that it would be difficult to put in words. A quiet man whose influence and stature spoke volumes, Peter’s brilliance was in shaping what we watch, how we watch and why late night was, and remains, vitally significant.”
Lassally was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1932. His Jewish family fled to the Netherlands in 1938, where, he told NPR in 2012, he was a classmate of Anne Frank. His father died when he was 10, and soon after, the Nazis sent him, his sister and his mother to the Westerbork concentration camp in the Netherlands and then to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia, which the Nazis tried to use for propaganda.
“That was a very strange place,” Lassally told NPR. “That’s where the Nazis fixed up the camp with all sorts of phony, wonderful decor, and invited the Red Cross to come and visit and see what wonderful things they were doing.” But it was different in reality; he noted, “It was a hard time for all of us.”
His family came to America in 1947, and in the early ‘50s, Lassally got a job as an usher at Radio City Music Hall and then as a page at NBC.
Lassally worked in radio and then worked for Arthur Godfrey, who was, at the time, America’s biggest television star. “There’s nothing comparable today or in recent history to him,” Lassally told CBS in 2018.
He joined The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1972. He rose through the ranks and eventually became executive producer. Lassally met Carson through his wife, who “unbeknownst to him” was “very involved” in the hiring and firing of people on his show, he told The Television Academy in 2009.
“Whatever he said during his monologue became what the country thought,” Lassally told PEOPLE in 2005 about how Carson, who died in that year at the age of 79, shaped national conversations. He noted in 1999, “Everything he did was effortless. He never looked like he was trying to be funny.”
When Carson retired in 1992, Lassally went to work for Letterman, 79, initially on NBC’s Late Night with David Letterman and then on The Late Show with David Letterman, which debuted in 1993.
Lassally was also executive producer of The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder from 1995 to 1999 and mentored Jon Stewart when he filled in for Snyder.
Lassally briefly retired until CBS asked him to help find a new host for The Late Late Show after Craig Kilborn left. Lassally wanted Craig Ferguson for the job and eventually convinced the network to sign the Scottish comedian. He became executive producer of Ferguson’s show.
“Craig speaks from the heart,” Lassally told PEOPLE in 2008 of Ferguson’s appeal. “He’s very funny — and he can make you cry.”
Lassally retired when Ferguson left the show in 2014.
Ferguson, 64, paid tribute to Lassally on Instagram, writing, “Peter Lassally was the best boss I ever had. His kindness generosity and skill were incredible. He taught me how to do a job I was deeply unqualified for and he changed my life beyond measure. I will always be grateful for what he did for me and my family. Thank you Peter.”
Lassally was nominated for 13 Emmys, winning twice — for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1992 and The Late Show With David Letterman in 1994.
“I’ve been very lucky that I’ve worked with really talented people almost all my life,” Lassally told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. “But I have a good eye for talent. I think that’s my biggest talent, if not my only talent. And so there is a comfort between the host and me, and trust and respect. I’ve learned things from them, and they’ve learned things from me.”
Lassally’s son, Tom, the partner, producer and manager at 3 Arts Entertainment, told The Hollywood Reporter that his father died Sunday, July 19, of natural causes at a memory care facility in Los Angeles.
Lassally is survived by his son and his daughter, Andrea, and his grandchildren, Walker, Eloise, Annabel and Owen. Alice, his wife of 60 years, predeceased him.
Read the original article on People
