‘The Talk’ Hosts Remember the Late Regis Philbin After His Death: ‘He Was a Pioneer’

Gone but not forgotten. The Talk hosts mourned Regis Philbin‘s death when they recalled all the great times they had with him on the Monday, July 27, episode of the show.

“He’s a class act. What can I say? There will never be another Regis ever. He came from a generation where there were true pioneers. Now people they just copy people like Regis,” Sharon Osbourne said. “But he was a pioneer. He knew his craft inside out and backwards. His timing was perfection.”

Sharon, 67, will never forget the first time she met Regis. After watching him on “TV for so long,” the entertainment manager said she was “so psyched to actually be near him” as a guest on his talk show. “It was a real honor for me,” she said, and cohost Marie Osmond could relate.

“All I know is that whenever I did press or whatever it was. A tour, an album, a book whatever. I would always do that show and I was always looking forward to seeing him,” Marie, 60, gushed. “He was so generous. He was warm and I don’t know how he did it, but he always remembered what he talked about last time.”

One thing Marie liked about the Live! host was that he “could talk about putting a sock on for 15 minutes and you’d love hearing every detail.”

“It’s like you said, Sharon. There’s not another Regis, and he will truly be missed,” the “Paper Roses” singer said.

On Saturday, July 25, Regis’ family announced he died from “natural causes” just one month shy of his 89th birthday. “His family and friends are forever grateful for the time we got to spend with him — for his warmth, his legendary sense of humor, and his singular ability to make every day into something worth talking about,” they said in a statement obtained by Us Weekly. “We thank his fans and admirers for their incredible support over his 60-year career and ask for privacy as we mourn his loss.”

If you’d like to honor Regis’ memory, his family kindly asks that you “make a donation to https://foodbanknyc.org/, to help people in need in his beloved New York, especially his home borough of The Bronx.”