Morley Safer, Legendary Journalist Of '60 Minutes' Fame, Dead at 84

Morley Safer, the versatile, old-school correspondent for "60 Minutes" and a legendary CBS newsman whose reporting from Vietnam enlightened Americans about the atrocities of the war, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 84.

CBS, which announced his death, did not give a cause.

• See Also: 5 Things You May Not Have Known About Morley Safer

Safer's work in Vietnam in the 1960s opened the nation's eyes to the actions of its own soldiers and the futility of the war, which the United States was losing despite propaganda to the contrary coming from the White House.

CBS had announced Safer's retirement from "60 Minutes" last week and aired an hour-long video tribute honoring his nearly 50 years on the show.

The news show was the vehicle by which millions of Americans got to know the journalist, his leathery face and gravely voice entering living rooms that welcomed him for his reputation for honesty and for his simple charm.

To an earlier generation, though, he was known as perhaps the best broadcast reporter covering the Vietnam war, repeatedly showing the reality of its ugliness, reporting the brutal facts on the "CBS Evening News" with Walter Cronkite, with closeup shots of the war's blood, firefights, tears and all.

Safer began has illustrious career writing for several Canadian newspapers, including the London Free Press and the Toronto Telegram, as well as the British Oxford Mail and Reuters. At 24, he became a TV reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the mainstay of the country’s television journalism.

“They had trouble getting good people,” Safer said in the CBS report on his life. “Because no one in newspaper journalism considered television real journalism. And that was my view of it too, by the way. But, I must tell you. Within about two weeks, I - 'God, this is really fun.'"

Safer joined CBS in 1964, working as a foreign correspondent in London and later in Vietnam.

In one of his more memorable reports, Safer brought into American homes reports of U.S. soldiers using flamethrowers and Zippo lighters to torch Vietnamese villages.

After the report aired, then-president Lyndon B. Johnson told Morley's boss at CBS that Morley had "shat on the American flag."

His first story for "60 Minutes" was about U.S. Sky Marshals and aired in 1970. He would report 919 in total over his 46 years with the program. His final piece aired in March and profiled Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

"Morley Safer has died," the show's executive producer, Jeff Fager, tweeted Thursday. "A masterful storyteller, inspiration to many of us and a wonderful friend."

This post will be updated.

Cody Fenwick contributed to this report.

Image via U.S. National Archives