Robin Leach

Robin Douglas Leach (born August 29, 1941 in London, England) is an English celebrity writer famous for hosting his first show, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" in the 1980s, which focused on profiling well-known celebrities and their lavish homes, cars, and other materialistic accoutrements. His voice is often parodied by other actors with his signature phrase, "champagne wishes and caviar dreams."

Early life

During grammar school at Harrow County School for Boys, 10 miles (16 km) from London, he edited a school magazine, "The Gayton Times", at age 14. At age 15 he became a general news reporter for "The Harrow Observer" and started a monthly glossy town magazine at age 17.

Career

Leach moved on to the "Daily Mail" as Britain's youngest page one reporter at age 18. In 1963, he immigrated to America and wrote for a number of publications ("New York Daily News", "People", "Ladies Home Journal" etc.) before launching "GO" Magazine and then was show business editor of "The Star".

Other television work includes reporting for "People Tonight" on CNN and "Entertainment Tonight" and helping start "Good Morning Australia" as well as the Food Network. Robin Leach was also a guest at World Wrestling Entertainment's "WrestleMania IV", where he read the rules for the championship tournament.

Leach hosted "" on VH1 in 2007.

He currently resides in Las Vegas.

Appearances and pop culture references

* He was a guest judge on Part One of the season finale of "Hell's Kitchen", which originally aired 2007/08/06.
* He was a guest on "Space Ghost Coast to Coast", on which he turns into a villain, Zoltran, who attacks Space Ghost.
* He provided the voice for the host of "Lifestyles of the Fat and Furry" in the "Garfield and Friends" short "Fat and Furry", an episode that parodied "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".
* He appeared on the Howard Stern Sirius Radio program on March 27, 2007.
* Leach was a guest in an episode of Penn & Teller's "Bullshit!", in which they criticize the concept of "The Best".
* He did a guest voice-over as himself on the "Family Guy" episode "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater" for a parody of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".
* Leach was shortly involved with KVTE-LP in an attempt to launch an all-Vegas television network.
* He was a contestant on the U.S. version of "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!", where he was the first eliminated by the public.
* He had a cameo in "Boy Meets World" playing himself.
* He had a cameo in the "Carmen Sandiego" episode "Diamonds are a Crook's Best Friend."
* He performed the intro to "The Key to Her Ferrari" on Thomas Dolby's album "Aliens Ate My Buick".
* He was the MC for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 2, 2008
* He was referenced in the following songs:
** The Notorious B.I.G. - "Juicy"
** Coolio - "Sumpin' New"
** Da Brat featuring Jermaine Dupri and The Notorious B.I.G. - "Da B Side"
** Fergie featuring Ludacris - "Glamorous"
** Warren G - "I Want It All"
** Freekey Zekey featuring Lil' Wayne - "Beat Without Bass"
** Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - "Mecca and the Soul Brother"
** Ghostface Killah - "White Linen Affair (Toney Awards)"
** Jimmy Buffett - "King of Somewhere Hot"

Trivia

Ironically, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was never shown on British network television, as a result, in Britain itself, few people have ever heard of Leach.

Leach spent his career on Lifestyles, exploring the mansions of the rich and famous, yet he owns a mansion himself in the Caribbean island of Antigua.

External links

*imdb|id=0494858|name=Robin Leach