# Walter Winchell

Source: https://onco.cc/people/walter-winchell/  
OnCo record `walter-winchell` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

When his friend Damon Runyon died of throat cancer in 1946 he asked his radio audience for a penny, a nickel, a dime or a dollar; the fund he started has invested over $490 million and backed more than 4,000 scientists.

## Summary

Walter Winchell (1897-1972), the most widely heard gossip columnist and broadcaster in America, lost his friend the sportswriter Damon Runyon to throat cancer in 1946. The Foundation's history records his appeal: 'Won't you send me a penny, a nickel, a dime, or a dollar? All of your money will go directly to the cancer fighters, in Damon Runyon's name.' He established the Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund and led its fundraising with Marlene Dietrich, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio until his own death from cancer in 1972. The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation states that since its founding it has invested over $490 million and funded over 4,000 scientists, chosen early in their careers for high-risk, high-reward work; its alumni include many of the field's leaders and Nobel laureates.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Tags: public-figure; donor
- Role: Broadcaster whose 1946 radio appeal founded the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
- Specialisms: Cancer research fundraising; Early-career scientist funding

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell
- Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation: our history: https://www.damonrunyon.org/our-strategy/our-history

## Connected records

- cancers: [Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/head-and-neck/)
- institutions: [Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation](https://onco.cc/institutions/damon-runyon/)
- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [Not enough oncologists, nurses, pathologists, physicists](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-workforce/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/walter-winchell.json