Regis Philbin ‘53, host of ABC’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Live! with Regis and Kelly, has donated $2.75 million to create the Regis Philbin Studio Theater in the Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts, planned for the south end of campus.
The 100-seat theater will be the home of lab and performance-art productions. Construction on the performing arts center is scheduled to begin later this year and be completed in 2003.
Philbin received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Notre Dame in 1999 in recognition of his previous gifts to Notre Dame in support of scholarships along with his service as host of an annual fund-raising broadcast on behalf of the Center for the Homeless in South Bend. He and his wife, Joy, are the parents of two daughters, Jennifer ’96, and Joanna, a second-year student in the Notre Dame Law School.