Old clips from Linkletter's House Party program were later featured as segments on the first incarnation of Kids Say the Darndest Things.

In his autobiography, Confessions of a Happy Man (1960), he revealed that he had no contact with his natural parents or his sister or two brothers since he was abandoned when only a few weeks old.

He was adopted by Mary (née Metzler) and Fulton John Linkletter, an evangelical preacher.

[9][10] During the early years of the Great Depression he rode trains around the country doing odd jobs and meeting a wide variety of people.

[13] In the 1940s, Linkletter worked in Hollywood with John Guedel on their pioneering radio show, People Are Funny, which employed audience participation, contests, and gags.

The series served as a prototype for future radio and television game shows.

Linkletter declined the opportunity offered by his friend Walt Disney to invest in the Disneyland theme park project, along with building and operating the Disneyland Hotel, due to Linkletter's doubts about the park's prospects.

But, out of friendship for Disney, Linkletter volunteered his experience as a live program broadcaster to help organize ABC's coverage of the Disneyland opening in 1955 on what was his 43rd birthday.

When Disney asked what he could do to show his gratitude for the broadcast's role in the successful launching of the park, Linkletter asked for Disneyland's camera and film concession for its first ten years, a request that was quickly granted.

His second appearance came in episode 15, season 6 of the series Wagon Train in 1962 alongside Nancy Reagan.

"[21] Art Linkletter's Kids was a 1963–64 gag cartoon panel drawn by the prolific cartoonist Stan Fine and distributed by King Features Syndicate.

As part of this role, Linkletter was active in campaigning for more stringent restrictions on elderly motorists.

by James W. Newman, in which he wrote, "I believe none of us should ever stop growing, learning, changing, and being curious about what's going to happen next.

A member of Pepperdine University's Board of Regents, Linkletter was also a long-term trustee at Springfield College, where he donated funds to build the swimming center named in his honor, the Art Linkletter Natatorium.

For his contribution to television, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located on 1560 Vine Street.

Lois Foerster Linkletter survived her husband by sixteen months, dying at the age of 95 on October 11, 2011.

[11][14][29][30] After his death, Phyllis Diller stated, "In a couple of months Art Linkletter would have been 98 years old, a full life of fun and goodness, an orphan who made it to the top.