Estonian journalist
Urmas Ott |
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| Born | 23 April 1955
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| Died | 17 October 2008(2008-10-17) (aged 53)
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Urmas Ott (April 23, 1955 – October 17, 2008) was an Estonian television and radio journalist, and famous talk show host in Soviet Union, Estonia[1] and Russia.[2]
Ott was born in Otepää[3] and first appeared on the Soviet Channel One in 1986 as host of Television Acquaintance (Russian: Телевизионное знакомство)[4] show. He later worked on Russian Channel One and Estonian ETV, hosting "Urmas Ott and Others" on the latter channel.
Career
On television he interviewed well-known people, including Anatoly Karpov, Boris Spassky, Irina Rodnina, Ilya Glazunov, Chuck Norris[5] and Alla Pugacheva.[6] His style was intimate, usually facing the interviewee rather than the audience.[7] He explained humorously that he appealed to Russian viewers because "I'm not one of them and I'm not foreign."[7]
Personal life
He lived in Tallinn[7] and died on 17 October 2008 in Tartu[8] from a heart attack after a bone marrow transplantation undertaken to remedy leukemia.
