Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke KBE was a British journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cookes America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theatre from 1971 to 1992. After holding the job foryears, and having worked in television for 42 years, Cooke retired in 1992, although he continued to present Letter from America until shortly before his death. He was the father of author and folk singer John Byrne Cooke.

Cooke was born in Salford, Lancashire, England, the son of Mary Elizabeth and Samuel Cooke. His father was a lay Methodist preacher and metalsmith by trade his mothers family were of Irish Protestant origin. Originally named Alfred, he changed his name to Alistair when he was 22. He was educated at Blackpool Grammar School, Blackpool and won a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree in English. He was heavily involved in the arts, was editor of Granta, and set up the Mummers, Cambridges first theatre group open to both sexes, from which he notably rejected a young James Mason, telling him to stick to architecture.

Source: Wikipedia