Alex Trebek’s closest friends reflect on final conversations with TV icon

LOS ANGELES (KABC) – Two of Alex Trebek’s closest friends remember the ‘Jeopardy’ icon for his warmth, loyalty and humor, and recall the last few conversations they had with him a few days before his death.

Peter Marshall, the original host of “Hollywood Squares,” had known Trebek for decades.

Marshall and his wife Laurie were scheduled to reunite with him on Saturday.

“He called me and he said, ‘I can’t come today, Petey. “I said, ‘I understand. We will meet again next week. “”

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The two were like brothers, he says.

“I loved him a lot. Actually, the last time I spoke to him was yesterday, I said ‘Just remember I love you.’ He said ‘I love you too, Petey.’ “

Marshall, in fact, was instrumental in Trebek’s decision to take on the “Jeopardy” hosting post that ended up making him a household name for decades.

After hosting several other game shows over the years, Trebek called Marshall in 1984 to tell him that he had been offered the role of “Jeopardy” but wondered if maybe that was too esoteric.

Marshall’s response “Are you crazy?”

Another close friend he met through show business was Ruta Lee. In the mid-1970s, she co-hosted a game show called “High Rollers” with Trebek. They developed a friendship that lasted for decades.

“There was something about us that clicked not only on camera but also off camera,” she recalls. “I consider him one of my dearest friends. I am so grateful to God for the blessing of his joyful friendship.”

Lee last spoke to Trebek on Friday.

“It was a wonderful conversation. She was full of humor. His best traits were his wild sense of humor and his fabulous loyalty.