Sam Rubin, who died suddenly Friday at age 64, was remembered as one of the most recognizable entertainment reporters in the business and a fixture on morning television news.
And Rubin himself would like the way the world mourned his death, according to his longtime friend and former colleague.
“He would appreciate all of us saying how much we loved him,” NBC Los Angeles anchor Lynette Romero, who worked with Rubin at KTLA for nearly 25 years.
Romero said Rubin had great affection and pride for his work, his viewers and the city of Los Angeles overall.
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“This is my friend who loved LA so much. And he loved viewers. He loved people so much that I kind of feel like it’s a way to honor him because he really loved being on TV,” Romero described.
As the Los Angeles TV world and entertainment industry overall remembered the journalist, Romero believes Rubin “lived his best life.”
“I don’t think he knew that this was his dream job. I don’t think he knew this was his destiny, but it was,” Romero said. “He knew every celebrity and every celebrity knew him. I don’t know if there’s one person he wanted to interview that he didn’t get to interview.”
As his passion for his job was well known among his colleagues, his love of his family, especially his four children, was what he talked to Romero about during their last conversation, she said.
“One of the last pictures he sent me was a picture of him with his son. And they were at the Dodger game and he wanted to show me that they were there. He loved his kids,” Romero recalled.
The longtime Los Angeles anchor herself wondered who would be able to fill the anchor chair that Rubin left behind.
“It will be very hard to move on past that, but he would want that. And he would want all of us to remember him and think of him and smile because he did that for other people,” Romero said. “He would give them light. What people are doing now is they’re giving him the light that he deserves.”
