By John Schwing

WESTPORT — Phil Donahue, the trailblazing talk television host and pundit — who died Sunday at age 88 — lived in Westport with his wife, actress Marlo Thomas, for decades.

While Donahue is known globally for his wide-ranging, innovative television interview programs — among the first to interact with the audience — locally, he now is known primarily as the owner of two waterfront mansions on Beachside Avenue’s luxury row.

But over the course of roughly a quarter-century while living in town from the late-1980s, Donahue didn’t remain cloistered behind those mansion gates, and regularly lent his name — and time — to community causes.

In 2009, for instance, he moderated a Westport Library program that showcased a screening of the documentary, “Body of War,” about a U.S. serviceman disabled by injuries suffered during the Iraq war. Donahue, who co-wrote and co-directed the film, told the sold-out audience, “If you’re going to send young men and women to war, you should be aware of the consequences,” according to an account published by WestportNow.com.

Donahue hosted the Westport Library’s 2010 “Booked for the Evening” salute to Will Shortz, the New York Times puzzle editor and moderator of the library’s annual crosswords tournament. The challenging puzzles in the Times, Donahue joked, kept him up late at night, WestportNow reported.

Donahue, a lover of purple martins who built nests for a colony of the birds on his Beachside estate, talked about his avian passion in 2013 remarks to the annual meeting of the Friends of Sherwood Island State Park, according to the WestportNow account. The nesting installation was later moved from Donahue’s property to the park.

As for those mansions, the properties’ valuations and re-sales have been the real-estate talk of the town since Donahue and Thomas moved from the privileged precinct.

The couple’s last Westport home, built in 2007 at 120-122 Beachside Ave. and sold by them in 2013, was put on the market in July by its current owner for $27.5 million. The sprawling, shingle-sided house sits on 6.6 acres with 400-foot frontage on Long Island Sound.

If the mansion sells for the listed price, it will set the record for the most expensive, individual residential property ever sold in town, according to several real estate publications.

Before that, Donahue and Thomas owned a Tudor-style mansion at 114 Beachside Ave., which they sold for $25 million in 2006 — a record at the time. The current owner applied for permission to tear down that home last year.

John Schwing, interim editor of the Westport Journal, has held senior editorial and writing posts at southwestern Connecticut media outlets for four decades. Learn more about us here.