Les Crane was a controversial yet relatively short-lived US talk show host, once dubbed the “bad boy of late-night television”, who starred in The Les Crane Show in the 1960s. He was known for his rapid-fire, opinionated style and aggressive use of a long-nosed microphone. He interviewed such people as the Rolling Stones — he nabbed their first interview in the US — Bob Dylan and Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother.

His greatest financial success came from his chairmanship of Software Toolworks, which developed the Chessmaster computer game and the popular typing tutorial Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.

Crane also attracted a cult following after recording the inspirational poem Desiderata by Max Ehrmann — “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence” — which won a Grammy for best spoken-word recording.

Lesley Stein (later changed to Crane) was born in New York in 1933. He graduated from Tulane University and joined the US Air Force, spending four years as a jet pilot and helicopter flight instructor.

He started his media career as a talkback radio star in San Francisco in the early 1960s. His confrontational style attracted the attention of ABC bosses who gave him his own show on WABC in New York, the corporation’s flagship television station.

His show, initially called Night Line . . . with Les Crane, first went to air in September 1963 at 1 in the morning. It attracted controversy within two months of its debut after he invited Governor George Wallace from Alabama to participate. This raised the ire of civil rights campaigners, who picketed the show.

The New York Times described his TV role as “public relations expert, complaint-department chief, psychiatrist and tough hero to the callers”.

In 1964 the show was moved first to the 11.30pm slot and then it was pitted unsuccessfully against Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show on NBC.

The show was cancelled a few months later, and several other shows were equally short-lived. Crane then had a few acting roles in television and film, including an appearance in the movie An American Dream (1966). He tried his hand briefly at medical school before setting up a consulting firm. In 1984 he founded Software Toolworks, which developed software games and produced software for other companies. He sold it to the British publisher Pearson for $462 million in 1994.

Crane married five times. His fourth wife was the actress Tina Louise, who played the role of the movie star Ginger in the US sitcom Gilligan’s Island.

He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Ginger Crane, and his daughter.

Les Crane, talk show host and software tycoon, was born on December 3, 1933. He died on July 13, 2008, aged 74