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Highly regarded American television presenter Alex Trebek has died of a cancer diagnosis, Sony Studios has announced.
Trebek, host of the popular Jeopardy! Trivia game, has died surrounded by friends and family in his California home. He was 80 years old.
Trebek has become a recognizable face across the country after spending nearly four decades hosting Jeopardy !, which calls itself “America’s Favorite Quiz.”
He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March of last year and has vowed to continue presenting despite his illness.
The Canadian-born host, who was keen to inform fans directly about his health, spoke in a calm and consistent tone as he revealed his illness and hope for a cure in a video released in March 2019.
In the video, Trebek said he joins the 50,000 other Americans who are diagnosed with such a diagnosis each year and admitted that the prognosis is not encouraging.
But Trebek said he intended to fight him and keep working, even joking that he needed to beat the disease because his “Jeopardy!” the contract lasted another three years.
Less than a week later, he opened the show with a message acknowledging the outpouring of kind words and prayers he had received.
“Thank you to the – believe it or not – the hundreds of thousands of people who have sent tweets, texts, emails, cards and letters wishing me good luck,” Trebek said. “I am a lucky guy.”
“Peril!” bills itself as “America’s Favorite Quiz” and captivated audiences with a unique format in which contestants received answers and had to provide questions on a variety of topics including movies, politics, history and popular culture.
They would respond by saying “What the …?” or “Who is …?”
Trebek, who became his host in 1984, was a master of the format, indulging in friendly banter with contestants, appearing genuinely happy when they answered correctly and, at the same time, moving the game forward in a quick and efficient manner. no frills whenever people struggled for answers.
He never claimed to know the answers himself if he didn’t really do so, relying on the show’s experts to decide whether a somewhat vague answer was close enough to be considered correct.
“I try not to take myself too seriously,” he told an interviewer in 2004. “I don’t want to sound like a pompous ass and say I know everything when I don’t.
The show was brainstormed by Juann Griffin, wife of late entrepreneur-talk show host Merv Griffin, who said she once suggested he create a game show where people got the answers.
“Peril!” debuted on NBC in 1964 with Art Fleming as master of ceremonies and was an immediate success. It lasted until 1975, then was relaunched in syndication with Trebek.
Long identified by a full head of hair and a cropped mustache (although in 2001 he surprised viewers by shaving his mustache, “completely on a whim”), Trebek was more than qualified for the job, having started his career in the game show “Reach for the Top” in his native country.
Moving to the United States in 1973, he appeared in “The Wizard of Odds”, “High Rollers”, “The $ 128,000 Question” and “Double Dare”. Even during his tour on “Jeopardy!” Trebek worked on other shows. In the early 1990s, he hosted three – “Jeopardy!”, “To Tell the Truth” and “Classic Concentration”.
“Peril!” made him famous. He won five Emmys as a Host and received Stars on the Steps of Hollywood and Canadian Fame. In 2012, the show won a prestigious Peabody Award.
He recorded his daily “Jeopardy!” shows at a breakneck pace, recording up to 10 episodes (two weeks) in just two days. After what was described as a mild heart attack in 2007, he returned to work in just one month.
He posted a video in January 2018 announcing that he had undergone surgery for blood clots in his brain following a fall he had taken. The show was on hiatus while he was recovering.
He hadn’t brought in a replacement host for Trebek yet – except once, when he and “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak traded their TV jobs for a fish prank. April.
In 2012, Trebek admitted he was considering retiring, but had been urged by friends to stay so he could turn 30 on the show. He always loved the job, he said, “What’s not to love? You have the security of a familiar environment, a familiar format, but you have the excitement of new clues and new ones. competing on every program. You can’t beat that! ”
Although many viewers see him as one of the main reasons for the show’s success, Trebek himself insisted that he was only there to get things done.
“I am introduced as the host of ‘Jeopardy !,’ not as the star,” he said in an interview in 2012. “My job is to provide an atmosphere and support for the contestants to come together. behave at best, ”he explained. “And if I manage to do that, I’ll be seen as a nice guy and the public will see me as a bit of a star.”
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