Siegel cofounded the nonprofit cancer support organization Gilda s Club in 1991 with actor Gene Wilder, whose wife, former star Gilda Radner, died of ovarian cancer in 1989. The five-time New York Emmy Award winner was diagnosed with cancer when he was 54, two weeks before he found out he was going to be a father. Siegel, who also won a Public Service Award from the Anti-Defamation League of B nai B rith for distinguished reporting and commitment to freedom of the press, was widely praised by his colleagues for the way he faced the disease head-on, reporting about cancer for ABC News and testifying on cancer patients behalf before Congress.
In 2003, upon realizing he might not win his own fight, he authored the memoir Lessons for Dylan: From Father to Son I knew my father pretty well; I was almost 40 when he died, Siegel said at the time. I faced the very real possibility that Dylan would never know me unless I wrote a book.
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