Regis Philbin Pays a Visit to Canadian Fans

Photo credit: Mike Crisolago

He may have signed off, but he’s not slowing down. Regis Philbin, television’s all-time most filmed personality, touched down in Toronto yesterday to promote his latest memoir How I Got This Way.

Greeted by adoring fans – some of whom lined up eight hours early – at Indigo Bay-Bloor, the 79-year-old broadcasting legend filled the crowd in on his latest travel woes (forgetting his passport and sitting in the airport among a throng of high school students from Nova Scotia) and answered a few fan questions before signing copies of his new book.

“I just want to thank you for making it okay to be 80!” one female fan yelled from the back of the crowd.

“I want to thank you for mentioning my age,” Regis quipped back. “You’re a beauty.”

Philbin described his third book as being “about the 30 people in my life that I met who have helped me and inspired me and influenced me in some way,” including people who he looked up to in his youth as well as celebrities like Bill Cosby, David Letterman, his two former co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Kelly Ripa and, of course, his wife Joy. Letterman, who is also a close friend of Philbin’s, wrote the forward to the book, which is essentially a biography of Abraham Lincoln with hand-written edits where necessary.

Philbin’s previous books are I’m Only One Man and Who Wants to be Me?

“So I hope you’ll enjoy the book,” Philbin told the Toronto crowd, “and maybe be inspired by it yourselves.”

-Mike Crisolago