“We lost one of Boston’s most renowned broadcast journalists today with the passing of Tom Ellis,” Bill Fine, president and general manager of WCVB (Channel 5), said in a statement Monday.

He came to Boston in 1968 and worked for the next 18 years as an anchorman at local television stations WBZ, WCVB, and WNEV, the predecessor to WHDH.

Tom Ellis, who anchored newscasts for nearly two decades at three of Boston’s network affiliates and later worked as an anchor for more than a dozen years at New England Cable News, has died at age 86.

“Tom had a commanding presence on the anchor desk and a signature delivery and style that were unmistakable. We send our love and deepest sympathy to his wife, Arlene, and the entire Ellis family,” Fine said.


James Rogers, vice president and general manager of WHDH (Channel 7) praised Ellis in a statement.

“Tom Ellis was a legend in broadcast news in Boston. We send our deepest sympathy to the Ellis family,” Rogers said.

Burt Peretsky, board member and executive director of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, mourned Ellis in an e-mail Monday afternoon.

“We have learned sadly that 2010 Mass Broadcasters Hall of Fame Inductee Tom Ellis has passed away,” Peretsky wrote.

His e-mail also included text of a Twitter post from the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association:“Our condolences to the family, friends, and former colleagues of legendary Boston anchor and @MABrdcstersHOF inductee Tom Ellis,” the e-mail said.

Ellis was credited with increasing ratings at both WBZ and WCVB. His performance prompted a comment from critic David Brudnoy that “anchoring at three Boston stations is the equivalent of degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton,” the Globe reported.

Ellis is the only person in Massachusetts broadcast history to have anchored newscasts that were top-rated, on each of the city’s primary network television affiliates, according to a biography posted to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame website.


His early career began in 1958, and included radio work at Texas stations in Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio, according to that biography.

Six months after he joined WBZ, Ellis’s newscasts captured more than half of the television audience at both 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., it said. His broadcasts at WCVB were “distinguished by top-of-the-market ratings for an extended period.”

His tenure at WNEV ended in 1986 with his firing after then-station management blamed him for low ratings, although fans petitioned the station to rehire the veteran broadcaster, the Globe reported around that time.

Ellis turned to acting in New York for a few years, appearing in commercials and afternoon soap operas, where he appeared on “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.”

Ahead of his 1989 acting debut in New York, he said, he was looking for a new challenge. “I got itchy, and decided it was time to get going, to get my heart beating,” he said.

He returned to Boston television news in 1992 as the host of “Inside Edition Extra” on WHDH, the Globe reported.

In a 2001 interview with the Globe, his wife said the Texas native, who graduated in 1958 from the University of Texas, was not related to “Unsolved Mysteries” host Robert Stack, despite the resemblance between the two.

The broadcasters’ association biography of Ellis reported that his longest tenure was as an anchor for New England Cable News, where he worked from 1994 to 2009.


In a Boston Globe interview shortly before taking the helm of the WHDH show in 1992, Ellis said he looked forward to returning to the airwaves as a broadcaster.

“It’s given me an opportunity to get back into Boston television, which is a very significant step for me,” Ellis said. “I’m thrilled to be back in town.”

A full obituary will follow.

John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.