Erik Bye

He was born Erik Erikssøn Bye in Brooklyn, New York in 1926 to Norwegian parents. The family returned home to Norway when Erik was to begin school. After a few years at Ringerike, Norway, they moved to Nordstrand - a suburb to Oslo. As a teenager he got involved in the resistance movement fighting the Germans occupying norway. He ended up having to escape to Sweden, where he joined the "Norwegian policetroops" (whose part it was to keep the peace and arrest war-criminals when the war ended in 1945 and they could all return home). After World War II he went back to the United States to study English, and finally he got a degree in journalism and drama at Midland Collega in Nebraska and the University of Wisconsin. In 1953 he started his career as a journalist in the American news agency Associated Press' Norwegian office. The same year he married politician Tove Bye. He also worked for the BBC in London before beginning his long-term relationship with NRK (Norwegian National Broadcasting) in 1958, first in radio and later in television. He was to become the biggest and most popular name in Norwegian broadcasting hosting several extremely popular TV shows. In one special christmas show he surprised a female guest with Santa Claus who - when he pulled off his mask - turned out to be his husband who she thought was in Hong Kong. Another time he had a hilarious interview with Danny Kaye and even did a comedy sketch spoofing westerns with actor 'Ken Curtis' who played Festus in the then popular "Gunsmoke". As late as 1992 he enjoyed one of his greatest successes on the small screen with his TV series "Jakten på Mangas Coloradas" - an historic exploration with the Apaches in America. With a strong love for America he also spent his entire life spotlighting the injustice native Americans had endured through the years. To Norwegians Erik Bye was not just a reporter, or a journalist or a tv-star, he was also a highly successful recording artist as well as a respected author and one of his generations leading poets. The poem "Vårherres klinkekule" (Our Lords Marble) is one of the most beloved in the history of Norwegian poetry. To top it all off he was also an actor, co-starring in legendary director Arne Skouen's 1966 movie "Reisen til havet". He was also well-known for his love of the sea, and his commitment to the sailors of World War II and Norwegian seamen in general. The last years of his life he battled cancer, but the illness would not stop him from touring as a performer as late as one month prior to his death on October 13th, 2004, at the age of 78. The death of this, the most award winning and beloved star of radio and television in Norway made huge headlines in Norway. He was survived by his family including Tove, his wife of over fifty years.