Television and radio presenter Arthur "Art" Gordon Kelly Linkletter spent most of his very long life focusing not only on his storied career, but on doing what was right by those he loved and those who loved him. This was an important trait to a man who had been abandoned by his parents when he was only a few weeks old.

He was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Candada, to a family by the name of Kelly. After his abandonment, he was adopted by Mary Metzler and Fulton John Linkletter, who were staunch Christians. Fulton was an evangelical preacher. Linkletter never had further contact with his biological parents or siblings. When he was five years old, the family relocated to the United States, settling in southern California. Linkletter attended school in San Diego and graduated from high school there. He finished school at a difficult time for America and the world in general. It was 1930, and the Great Depression was descending upon the American economy. There were no jobs and he could not afford college. Like a great many other young men with no prospects, he took to riding the rails, hopping on trains and traveling about the country looking for any type of work. While such a practice might sound tragic, Linkletter looked at it as an opportunity to see the country and meet a wide variety of people.

He developed strong communication skills that would serve him well later. When he returned to California he found a way to enroll at San Diego State Teacher's College (now San Diego State University) and earned a bachelor's degree and joined a social fraternity. Even though his degree was in education, he was drawn to work in media. He found employment as a radio announcer at KGB in his hometown of San Diego. He proved himself adept at his work and was soon directing and writing radio programs for the station.

Next, he went to work in Hollywood, helping to develop the seminal radio show, People Are Funny. The show proved to be a true prototype as it was the first to involve audience participation, foreshadowing innumerable radio and television game programs. He then began to work on television programs and acted in two movies. He expanded his business interests outside of media and became a major investor and promoter of the hula hoop, which was a huge hit with young and old during the 1950s. He also endorsed Milton Bradley's Game of Life board game. While he was achieving so much professional success, he was also investing his earnings wisely. He was no miser; however, and was widely known for his extensive philanthropic efforts. He felt it was important to do for others who could not do for themselves, just as he had once been helpless and abandoned as an infant.

He was a political conservative, and sat on boards of conservative causes as well as on boards at universities.He was the recipient of a number of honorary degrees. He was just as attentive in his personal life. He and his wife, Lois Foerster, were married for more than seventy-four years. No one in the entertainment and media industries could boast of such loyalty. The couple had five children.

Despite his strenuous efforts to protect and shield himself and his family from heartbreak, tragedy found the Linkletter family, anyway. He outlived three of his children. One son died in an auto accident. Another died from lymphoma, and his daughter, Diane, jumped out of a window in her sixth-floor apartment when she was only twenty years old. Ironically, he had just recorded We Love You, Call Collect, with his daughter. In it, he discussed his worries as a father as he saw society changing in ways that were frightening to his generation. His discussion was followed by his daughter's rebuttal, entitled, Dear Mom and Dad. The next year the recording received a Grammy Award for the "Best Spoken Word Recording." In 2008, Linkletter suffered a mild stroke and retired from the public stage. He died at his home in Bel Air, California, in 2010.