Fast-talking Philbin lives by word of mouth

Dean Martin’s dulcet tones waft from a boombox wedged onto a crowded bookshelf in Regis Philbin’s office. Stock prices feed across the screen of a muted television, and Philbin scrutinizes his investments.

When the Daytime Emmy-winning host of “Live With Regis and Kelly” recognizes a fellow Martin fan, he pops a tape of Martin’s old TV show into the VCR. Wearing gray slacks and a navy shirt, Philbin dances around his office. “Yeah, Deanie,” Philbin says, fingers snapping to the beat. “With the cigarette, with the tux. Yeah, Deanie.” When Martin slides his dapper self into a leather chair on screen, Philbin elbows a visitor and points to that very chair, now sitting in his office.

Philbin had wanted to be a singer since he was 5. Specifically, he wanted to be Bing Crosby. Possibly as a result of growing up in the Bronx, where steely nerves and brassy resolve are requirements for survival, Philbin dared to sing “Pennies From Heaven” to Crosby when Philbin was Joey Bishop’s sidekick in the late 1960s on “The Joey Bishop Show.”

Though he has become famous as part of a duo, Philbin is no second banana. In addition to hosting his hourlong syndicated morning talk show, Philbin reignited the game-show genre in 1999 with “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” He returns Sunday with ABC’s “Super Millionaire,” in which contestants can win $10 million. The show has four more airings through May 23.

Philbin knew he wanted to do “Millionaire” the moment he saw the British version. Still, he had to seek it out. “I had been with ABC since the mid-’60s, and here it is the late ‘90s,” he says. The powers that be considered Phil Donahue, Montel Williams and Maury Povich for the spot, Philbin says, “but no Regis.”

He was not about to give up, and the network finally agreed. He watched tapings of shows for four days in England, then returned to make the show here. It was wildly successful, and Philbin assumed a new mantle: fashion maven.

His monochromatic shirts and ties became “a look,” and Philbin, already a familiar face, found himself a target for New Yorkers who couldn’t resist shouting, “Hey, Reeg, is that your final answer?”

“It’s part of the New York experience,” Philbin says. “If I walk across the street, the cabdriver, the bus driver honk. You’ve got to be patient. You’ve got to enjoy it.”

He clearly does. During commercial breaks of “Live With Regis and Kelly,” he and co-host Kelly Ripa chat with the audience and pose for snapshots. On a recent day, Whoopi Goldberg, “The Apprentice” winner Bill Rancic and a reject from “American Idol” are on.

During a commercial break, Philbin politely tells a woman he does not remember a friend of hers and gratefully accepts a cap from a Pennsylvania state trooper. While on break, the “Idol” singer tells Philbin, “Even though I lost, I feel I really won.” Philbin replies, “No, you lost.”

Lest anyone think a moment of this show is scripted, Ripa and the beleaguered executive producer, Michael Gelman, assure it is not. Philbin even refuses to talk with his co-host before the show to ensure conversation is spontaneous.

“People probably think Regis turns it on for TV,” Gelman says after the show, finding a quiet place to talk in a makeup room. “They think they are seeing TV Regis. Regis on TV is Regis off TV.”

Gelman also notes something quite special about the unassuming guy. “After 45 years on TV, no one has done as much live TV as he has.... Live is scary. You are out there being yourself. There is no net. Regis creates the humor.”

Ripa says Philbin reminds her of her son, Michael, 6, because of his “boyish, mischievous nature.” During her nearly three years on the show, Ripa says, “he taught me that the audience is everything. I had been an actress for 13 years on a soap, and I had never seen an audience before I got here. All I knew about an audience was the Nielsens -- a number. With ‘Live,’ you see them every day, and without them, you are nothing, and you sort of owe them your whole career. He taught me that.”

The people who taught him -- the clergy at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, the U.S. Navy and his parents, first-generation Americans -- are credited in his books. “I’m Only One Man!” and “Who Wants to Be Me?” are Philbin at his best -- telling stories.

The University of Notre Dame looms large in Philbin’s books, conversation and life. A wall of his office is devoted to his alma mater, to which he makes regular pilgrimages. Philbin also writes about growing up, his first wife and enjoying life with Joy, his wife of 34 years. He is proud of his four children, one of whom works for the Department of Defense and another who is a writer on “The O.C.”

There is nothing nasty in his books or conversation. Rather, his specialty, and the reason people tune in, is that he is pretty much every guy. Of course, every guy does not live in a luxurious high-rise a block from the studio and a house in tony Greenwich, Conn., but Philbin has never forgotten his roots, often citing his boyhood pal, “Freakin’ Finelli.”

Despite how well life is going, Philbin, 72, considers quitting. “I have a contract that goes for another two years,” he says. “And then I may say adios.”

Gelman does not buy that for a New York minute. “Regis is ageless. Regis does not play like a guy his age. He plays like a guy in his 50s. He said he doubted he would renew the last three times. One day, 20 years from now, Regis will take a sip of coffee at 9:15 and -- boop! -- call it a day on the air.”

Regis Philbin hosts ABC’s “Super Millionaire” beginning Sunday.

Jacqueline Cutler writes for Tribune Media Services.

“Super Millionaire” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday and 10 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on ABC.