The definitive story on Christine Chubbuck, the anchorwoman who killed herself on live TV

Rebecca Hall as Christine Chubbuck in the new film “Christine.” (Joe Anderson/Sundance Institute via AP)

In 1974, a newscaster in Sarasota, Fla., pulled out a gun and shot herself on live television. In today’s world, countless people would have seen Christine Chubbuck’s very public suicide on the Internet afterward, but back then, the woman’s death warranted some mentions on national nightly news before she faded into obscurity.
The incident is coming to light once again, however, after two movies about her life premiered at Sundance. One is the feature “Christine,” which stars Rebecca Hall as the journalist, and follows her depressive spiral. The second is the documentary “Kate Plays Christine,” about an actress who gets a job to play the newscaster in another project, then moves to Sarasota to investigate Chubbuck’s life.
With renewed interest in Chubbuck, we’re republishing a profile written by Sally Quinn in 1974, shortly after the newscaster’s suicide:

Christine Chubbuck: 29, Good-Looking, Educated, A Television Personality. Dead. Live and in Color.