Charles Van Doren, central figure in 1950s quiz show scandal, dies at 93

Charles Van Doren, one of the first intellectual stars of the television era as a contestant on the NBC show “Twenty One,” who quickly became the country’s leading villain after admitting that his winning streak on the popular game show had been rigged, died Tuesday. Van Doren and nine other contestants who had appeared on one of three NBC shows — “Twenty One,” “Tic Tac Dough” and “High Low” — pleaded guilty to perjury but were given suspended sentences. That show’s producers were also looking for a way to bolster the ratings of “Twenty One” when in walked Van Doren, a contestant with an intellectual pedigree and telegenic upper-crust looks. “You’re not pursuing an innocent victim, but a willing participant.” Testifying before Congress in 1959, Van Doren’s confession began, “I would give almost anything I have to reverse the course of my life in the last three years.” For the most part, Van Doren avoided publicly commenting about the quiz show controversy until 2008, when, at 82, he wrote a first-person piece on the affair for the New Yorker.