Geraldo Rivera Celebrates 50 Years in Television: See His Life and Career Throughout the Years

Promotional photo of Rivera from the 1970s.

Rivera speaking with high school students in the WABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News newsroom in 1972.

Rivera working in the basement office at WABC radio in 1974. Shortly after the Willowbrook exposé, he moved to the basement and started the Channel 7 Help Center, his own investigative news team where he launched a series of explosive reports, including the series on the institution which resulted in its closure.

Rivera alongside the late Hugh Hefner for Good Night America on May 1, 1974.

A New York Post clip (dated April 3, 1974) of when ABC tried to stop Rivera's segment on marijuana by censoring it.

Rivera and a member of his team with Jerry Garcia on Sept. 12, 1974.

Rivera writing John Lennon's obituary for ABC Nightline.

Rivera holding a John Lennon LP outside The Dakota, where Lennon was murdered. Rivera lived only a few blocks away.

The day Lennon died, on Dec. 8, 1980, Rivera reported on the death of the Beatles frontman on ABC News with Ted Kopple.

Image (dated March 24, 1983) from a 20/20 investigative report on migrant farm workers.

"Well, I didn't look that bad. I mean, the Playgirl cover you can forgive because it was so long ago and that was when there was still a Playboy mansion and Playgirl was the hot magazine for gay guys or women. But that was that era," Rivera tells PEOPLE of his 1988 cover.

Asked whether he'd do pose again if the magazine was still in publication, Rivera said, "I hesitate because I would say yes, but my wife would say a resounding no; so would my daughters. So the answer is no I would not."

Rivera alongside Bernard Carabello, a former resident of the infamous Willowbrook State School who spent 18 years institutionalized, although he was not mentally impaired. Carabello was released from Willowbrook following Rivera's exposé of the institution's practices.

Rivera next to a helicopter in Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan, in November 2001.

Rivera in Tora Bora, Afghanistan in 2001.

Rivera with Somali militia in Mogadishu in 2002.

Rivera piled into a Black Hawk helicopter flying through Iraq in March 2003.

Rivera on a DEA jet in Colombia while he was covering Plan Colombia in July 2003.

Rivera alongside former CIA Director General David Petraeus in Baghdad in 2007.

Rivera standing alongside soldiers outside the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan in 2008.

Rivera, his wife Erica, and their daughter Sol at Erica's 40th birthday party in NYC on Jan. 20, 2015. They reside in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rivera's children from left to right: daughter-in-law Deborah, son Cruz, daughter Isabella, daughter Sol, daughter Simone and son Gabriel, husband of Deborah.

Rivera at work in his office.

Rivera reporting for FOX News Channel, where he serves as a roaming correspondent-at-large.