Allen died in his sleep Monday at the age of 78. He was the first host of the Tonight Show. He was also a celebrated pianist, comedian, scholar and an HSPVA benefactor. Here's the official story...

Comedian Steve Allen, the father of the late-night TV talk show, died in his sleep Monday night. He was 78. ABCNEWS’ Bill Diehl pays tribute to the late great Allen. RealVideo (download RealPlayer)

“He said he was a little tired after dinner. He went to relax, peacefully, and never reawakened,” said his son, Bill Allen. In the mid-1950s, the bespectacled comic created The Tonight Show, now hosted by Jay Leno. He is often credited as the pioneer of the late night-talk show format, now a staple of TV programming. But Allen was also a multi-talented entertainer who wrote 40 books and more than 4,000 songs, including the classic “This May Be the Start of Something Big.” Comic King of Swing The Tonight Show began on New York’s NBC station, then moved to the network in 1954, where it remains today. The show began with Allen at the piano, playing some of his songs and commenting wittily on the events of the day. Steve Allen with wife Jayne Meadows. At their first meeting, she told him, “Mr. Allen, you’re either the rudest man I ever met or the shyest.” (AP Photo)

Frankie Valli, the lead singer of The Four Seasons, remembers Allen as a gentle soul with a wicked sense of humor. “I was doing his show all the time. And it was always live. You had one show, and he made it work,” Valli told ABCNEWS.com. The host moved to a desk, chatted with guests, took part in sketches and did zany man-in-the-street interviews. Allen once said it was all “tremendous fun.” “I’d go on and sing ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ and he was so supportive,” Valli said. “Before I had hits, I did an ice carnival he was hosting in Minnesota. He was so funny. But he was also very genuine, very friendly, one of the nicest guys in the business.” Allen also starred as the King of Swing in the 1956 movie The Benny Goodman Story. He appeared in Broadway shows, on soap operas, wrote newspaper columns, made 40 record albums, wrote plays and a television series that delved into the personalities of such figures as Sigmund Freud, Clarence Darrow and Aristotle.