LAMAMIMET

Peter Lassally was born on October 14, 1932, in Hamburg, Germany, into a Jewish family. They fled to the Netherlands in 1938 before World War II, where he attended grade school with Anne Frank. In 1943, Lassally and his family were interned at Nazi concentration camps before immigrating to New York City in 1947. He began his entertainment career as an NBC page in 1951.

Lassally became one of the most influential figures in late-night television, serving as executive producer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson starting around 1970. After Carson's retirement in 1992, he moved to work with David Letterman on both Late Night and The Late Show. He later came out of semi-retirement to produce The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, remaining in that role until 2015. Known as "the host whisperer," he retired at age 82 after a decades-long career shaping American late-night television.