American sportscaster, former All-American at the University of Southern California and No.1 pick of the New York Giants after graduation in 1951. A stellar pro football career followed over the next 12 years with the New York Giants (1952–1960, 1962–1964), setting several NFL records, including the most touchdowns and the most yards gained while pass-receiving (5,434). Voted All Pro six times, he was named football’s MVP in 1956 and was enshrined in the Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
Gifford’s early years were peripatetic, his father was an oilfield worker and the family moved wherever he could find work. “We’d move into a town and my dad would have a job until they struck oil, then we’d move again. Sometimes we’d stay in one place only three weeks. My mother says we moved 47 times.”
Finally settling in Bakersfield, California, Gifford was too small to letter in football until his junior year in Bakersfield High. At the end of that season, he was starting quarterback. Upon graduation, he planned to attend University of Southern California, despite his poor academic performance. His unsettled childhood resulted in a lapsed education and, as a poor student, he rarely attended classes. After spending a semester at Bakersfield College, USC accepted him on the condition he would spend time in night school improving his grades.
His broadcasting career began in 1957 with a job at CBS radio. Two years later he played in the film “UP Periscope.” After retiring from football in 1965, Gifford worked for WCBS TV in New York. Six years later he was hired as the play-by play announcer on “Monday Night Football” where he has remained a fixture (until 18 January 1998 when he was replaced by Boomer Esiason. It was assumed at that time-period that it was related to his negative publicity from his extramarital affair.)
Gifford and his first wife of 26 years, Maxine, had three children. Their daughter Victoria married Michael Kennedy, the son of Robert and Ethel, in 1981. Following Maxine’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1974, Gifford became a member of the board of directors of the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. His autobiography, co-authored with Harry Waters, “The Whole Ten Yards” was published in 1994.
Handsome and personable, Gifford made a second marriage of six years to wife Astrid that ended in divorce in 1984. Two years later, he married Kathie Lee Johnson, a co-worker on TV program “Good Morning America,” who later co-starred “Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.” An extra-marital affair in 1997 with TWA flight attendant Suzen Johnson put his name in the media machine as a philandering husband who threatened the stability of his marriage. He suffered the public embarrassment of having his picture all over the scandal rags due to being caught in the arms of his lover. He and Suzen had met in October 1993 while he was on a trip. A series of sex phone calls were recorded in April 1994 and met at the Regency Hotel on 30 April 1997 for an illicit afternoon. They consummated the beginning of their affair on 1 May 1997 in a Park Avenue suite. Globe scandal sheet broke the story on 13 May 1997 with dates, times and pictures.
In 2000, Kathie Lee was still playing the martyred, forgiving wife while Frank was smarting from public humiliation from his reckless affair.
Gifford and Kathie Lee filed a libel suit against the tabloid “National Enquirer,” 6 April 2000, over an article claiming their son Cody was behaving badly on several occasions.
On 9 August 2015, Gifford died from natural causes at his Greenwich, Connecticut, home at the age of 84.
Link to Wikipedia biography