Bill Kurtis
Birthday
September 21, 1940 (84 years)
Place of Birth
Pensacola, Florida, USA
Known For
Acting
Biography
Bill Kurtis (born William Horton Kuretich; September 21, 1940) is an American television journalist, television producer, narrator, and news anchor. He has been noted for his sonorous voice throughout his career. He is most known for narrating A&E's true crime series Cold Case Files as well as American Justice. Kurtis was studying to become a lawyer in the 1960s, when he was asked to fill in on a temporary news assignment at a television station in Topeka, Kansas. His reporting on a devastating tornado outbreak, led to an on air news reporter and later a very successful news anchor position in Chicago. In 1982, Kurtis joined Diane Sawyer on The CBS Morning News, the network broadcast from New York City. The two were also on the CBS Early Morning News, which aired an hour earlier on most CBS stations. He also anchored three CBS Reports: The Plane That Fell from the Sky, The Golden Leaf, and The Gift of Life. He became especially interested in investigative in-depth reports and documentaries. When he returned to Chicago and for a time resumed his anchor duties, he also founded a production company, Kurtis Productions. Kurtis hosted or produced a number of crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. Kurtis is the scorekeeper/announcer for National Public Radio (NPR)'s news comedy/quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, and served as the host of Through the Decades, a documentary-style news magazine seen on Decades. Kurtis narrated nearly 1,000 documentaries, and Kurtis Productions produced nearly 500 documentaries for series like The New Explorers on PBS; Investigative Reports and Cold Case Files for the A&E; and Investigating History for the History Channel. He also hosted American Justice, produced by Towers Productions. For CNBC, the company has produced nearly 100 episodes of American Greed. Kurtis has received two Peabody Awards, numerous Emmy Awards, awards from the Overseas Press Club, a DuPont Award, and has been inducted into the Illinois and Kansas Halls of Fame. In 1998, he was awarded the University of Kansas William Allen White citation. Kurtis has also authored three books: On Assignment (1984), Death Penalty on Trial (2004), and Prairie Table Cookbook (2008). In the animated series South Park, Eric Cartman owns a board game called "Investigative Reports with Bill Kurtis", featuring a talking Bill Kurtis bust. The boys can be seen playing the game in South Park's season four episode "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" (2000) and season eight episode "Up the Down Steroid" (2004). The game can also be seen on the shelf of a hobby store in the episode "Cock Magic" (2014). A 1972 report by Bill Kurtis, while a correspondent for CBS News in Los Angeles, was used as the introduction to Dr. Dre's album Compton. Kurtis also contributed a spoken-word introduction to The Dandy Warhols' 2005 album Odditorium or Warlords of Mars.
Bill Kurtis Movies & TV-shows on Netflix
Movies with Bill Kurtis
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Jun 28, 2004
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Dec 18, 2013
The Atlanta Child Murders
Jan 1, 2001
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie
Dec 28, 2004
'85: The Greatest Team in Football History
Oct 1, 2016
Live at Mister Kelly's
Sep 17, 2021
The New Explorers: The Science of Star Trek
Jan 18, 1995
Chasing October
Mar 23, 2007
William Allen White: What's the Matter with Kansas
Apr 25, 2018
Will Rogers and American Politics
Nov 30, 2010
Making Waves
Stull
Jul 26, 2009
TV shows with Bill Kurtis
Saturday Night Live
Oct 11, 1975
The Sopranos
Jan 10, 1999
Cold Case Files
Jan 1, 1999
Cold Case Files
Feb 27, 2017
Investigating History
Apr 19, 2004
The Unexplained
Jan 2, 1996
The Mafia: Empire of Crime
Mar 19, 1993
Cold Case Files: DNA Speaks
Aug 17, 2023
American Justice
Oct 7, 1992
Investigative Reports
Sep 27, 1991
The American Revolution
Nov 27, 1994