Columnist. Born Irving Kupcinet, one of four children of Anna Paswell and Max Kupcinet, a delivery truck driver. He grew up in Lawndale, Illinois, and attended Northwestern University on a football scholarship. In 1935, he was picked up by the the Philadelphia Eagles as a reserve player for part of one season before a shoulder injury ended his career before it began. He then obtained a job as a sports reporter for The Chicago Daily Times. In 1943, The Daily Times merged with The Chicago Sun, resulting in The Sun-Times in 1948. He was given his own column in direct competition to New York gossip columnist Walter Winchell, reporting on the rich and famous as well as hometown personalities. 'Kup's Column' took off, syndicated in more than 100 newspapers. In 1952, he hosted a television talk show on CBS, and in 1957, on NBC's 'America After Dark,' followed by 'At Random' in 1959. Through the 1950s and 1960s, he served as co-announcer for Chicago Bears radio broadcasts. In 1959, he delivered a cameo appearance in the film 'Anatomy of a Murder' and another in 'Advise and Consent' (1962). After his daughter's unexplained death in 1963, he established a playhouse at Shimer College in Waukegan, Illinois in her honor, as well as a school at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. In 1986, he collapsed, and went through surgery. Later that year, the Wabash Avenue bridge over the Chicago River was renamed the Irv Kupcinet Bridge. In 1988, he published his memoir, 'Kup: A Man, an Era, a City.' With his health on a downward spiral, over the next decade his column went from six appearances a week, to twice a week, until it was finally simply written by his assistant. He would eventually be confined to a wheelchair after developing spinal stenosis. He finally succumbed to pneumonia at 91. A memorial plaque in the lobby of The Sun-Times calls him a "chronicler of Chicago night life, companion to celebrities, confidant of presidents, friend to all."