born Nov. 20, 1908, Manchester, Eng.
British-U.S. journalist and commentator.
Cooke settled in New York City after studies at the University of Cambridge and Yale and Harvard universities. From the late 1930s he provided lively and insightful interpretations of American culture and history to British audiences in newspapers and radio broadcasts. His weekly radio program Letter from America began in 1946 and has run for more than half a century; One Man's America (1952) and Talk About America (1968) collect many of its texts. His television programs include Omnibus (195661) and the BBC-produced series America (197273). He hosted television's Masterpiece Theatre from the 1970s to the early 1990s.