Joseph Finnigan

JOSEPH FINNIGAN

Longtime TV Guide columnist Joe Finnigan died January 22nd, after a long illness at the Villa Scalabrini Retirement Center in Sun Valley. He was 88.

Joseph Michael Finnigan was born in San Francisco on December 12, 1925, one of 11 children in an Irish immigrant family, and graduated from Balboa High School. In World War II, he served as a U.S. Navy radio operator on the USS Putnam destroyer, seeing action offshore at Iwo Jima and Okinawa as well as service in the postwar Japan Occupation.

After the War, Finnigan received his bachelor's degree in social sciences at San Francisco State College. His first job in journalism was as a copy boy at the San Francisco Examiner, followed up by a stint as sports editor of the Press-Democrat in Santa Rosa. From there he joined the United Press wire service (later United Press International, or UPI) as a correspondent in its San Francisco bureau. He also served as the wire service's bureau chief in Phoenix and as Pacific Northwest sales manager in Seattle.

Landing in the Los Angeles bureau in the late 1950s, Finnigan was promoted to columnist, writing one of UPI's two daily Hollywood columns, the other written by his friend, the late Vernon Scott. That was the start of more than two decades of covering the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards, events at which he sometimes let one of his six children tag along. Additionally, Finnigan was occasionally cast as an extra (usually a reporter) in a TV series or a movie, appearing in "McHale's Navy" and "Hazel" and the films "Seven Days in May" and "The Patsy".

In 1965, Finnigan joined TV Guide's Hollywood bureau and wrote the iconic, yellow-page, "TV Teletype," Hollywood column, writing that for more than 18 years along with many feature stories, profiles and interviews. For many years he also wrote the "Inside Hollywood," column for the Daily Racing Form plus he worked as a writer/guest prep interviewer for "The Merv Griffin Show." He later wrote for the now-defunct Television-Radio Age and Emmy magazine.

A long-time resident of Studio City, he retired to Carpinteria in the late 1980s, where for two decades he was involved in the Kiwanis Club. On Election Day for many years, he volunteered to work at a local polling place.

Finnigan is survived by his wife Shirley, to whom he was married for 60 years; daughters, Anne and Mary (husband Jack); sons, John (wife Robbie), Mark (wife Mary Jane); plus twins, David (wife Cary) and Matthew (wife Mindy); his twin brother, Tom; his younger brother, Raymond; brother-in-law, David Lunn; and 11 grandchildren.

Joe is remembered as a devout husband to his wife, a caring and selfless father to his children and a man of wit and integrity to his friends and those who worked with him.

A Catholic Funeral Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m., Friday, February 7th, at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, where Joe served as an usher for many years. A private interment will be held Saturday in Carpinteria.