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Alex Trebek

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Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek in 2007
Born
Giorgi Suka-Alex Trebek
StatusMarried
Occupation(s)TV presenter, Game show presenter
SpouseJean Currivan-Trebek

George Alexander "Alex" Trebek (born July 22, 1940) is an Emmy Award-winning Canadian-American television personality and game show host. He has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since September 10, 1984. He has hosted numerous game/quiz shows and has appeared in television series, usually as himself. Though a native of Canada, he became a naturalized United States citizen in 1998.[1]

Biography

Early life

Trebek was born Giorgi Suka-Alex Trebek[2] in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, the son of Lucille (née Lagacé), a Franco-Ontarian, and George Edward Trebek, a Ukrainian immigrant. He was educated at a Jesuit school before graduating from Toronto's Malvern Collegiate Institute in 1958, and later the University of Ottawa with a degree in philosophy. Interested in a career in broadcast news, he began his broadcasting career working for the CBC as a newscaster and sportscaster. Trebek specialized in national news and covering a wide range of special events for the CBC's radio and television divisions, including a stint as the host of CBC Championship Curling [1].

Trebek once attended the former Royal Roads Military College, in Victoria BC, Canada, but did not complete first year.[3]

Rise in television

In 1964 he started hosting the high school quiz show Reach for the Top. In 1970 he hosted a Canadian television show called Jackpot! In 1973, he moved to the United States and worked for NBC as host of a new game show, The Wizard of Odds. A year later, Trebek hosted the popular Merrill Heatter-Bob Quigley game show High Rollers, which had two incarnations on NBC (1974-76 and 1978-80). He also hosted game shows such as Battlestars, Double Dare and Pitfall before he was chosen to host the revived version of the game show Jeopardy! in 1984. He has been its host ever since, for the past 23 years. After three years of syndicated success with Jeopardy, he was hired by Mark Goodson to host the NBC daytime game show Classic Concentration, and would host both series simultaneously for the next four years.

In 1991, he became the only host in United States TV history to helm three daily national game shows at once — Jeopardy!, Classic Concentration and To Tell the Truth. He is also one of four hosts to emcee a game show in the United States and a game show in Canada at the same time, and he and Jim Perry are the only two known hosts in the industry to host three different game shows at once in North American television.[citation needed]

Having been divorced from his first wife, Elaine Callei, he has been married to his second wife, Jean Currivan-Trebek, a real estate businesswoman and the mother of his two children, since April 30, 1990.[citation needed]

Honors and awards

File:Trebek.JPG
The handprints of Alex Trebek in front of Hollywood Hills Amphitheater at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park

Having skillfully guided the series to years of unprecedented success, Alex Trebek has been personally honored with four Outstanding Game Show Host Emmy Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located at 6501 Hollywood Boulevard, near those for Ann-Margret and Vincent Price).

Trebek is active with a number of educational organizations and charities, and donates a great deal of his free time to touring overseas with the USO. He hosts the annual National Geographic Bee in the U.S. and The Great Canadian Geography Challenge in Canada. Active with the World Vision charitable organization, he has traveled to many Third World countries with World Vision projects, taping reports on the group's efforts on behalf of children around the world.[4]

In March of 2006, it was announced that he would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. He is the second game show host to be inducted (the first being Monty Hall).

Parodies

Due to Trebek's long history on television, he is a familiar figure and therefore a popular parody target, which usually emphasize his stoic nature and his attempts at native pronunciation of foreign terms. Parodies of him include Eugene Levy portraying a game show host named 'Alex Trebel' on Second City Television, Ike Barinholtz portraying him on MadTV, and Adam West of Family Guy banishing Trebek "back to the fifth dimension where he belongs" in the episode "I Take Thee Quagmire." Trebek has also played himself or a version of himself on Pinky and the Brain and Rugrats, as well as being the subject of a practical joke in an episode of TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes, finding himself the subject of a made-up personality cult. Trebek also briefly appears as himself in the 1998 movie Mafia! during a parade in early 20th-century Italy. The most well known parody of Trebek is Will Ferrell's portrayal on Saturday Night Live parody sketches of Celebrity Jeopardy!; Trebek himself appeared in the final such sketch in Ferrell's 2002 finale as a series regular (there has been one more sketch in 2005 when Ferrell later hosted).

Thoroughbred horse racing

Trebek owns and manages a 700 acre (2.8 km²) ranch near Paso Robles in Creston, California formerly owned by Fred and Helen Sahadi, parents of trainer Jenine Sahadi.[5] The property was known as Cardiff Stud Farm but Trebek renamed it Creston Farms where he breeds, trains and provides state-of-the-art care for Thoroughbred race horses.[6]

Among Thoroughbreds raced by Trebek, his colt, Reba's Gold, was a stakes-winning grandson of Seattle Slew.[7]

Events

Wikinews has related news:

Trebek became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1998. He now lives in Studio City, California with his wife (Jean) and two children (Matthew and Emily). In an interview with a talk show host, Trebek complained that "I had only been a citizen for two weeks when I received a summons to appear for jury duty!"[8]

In 1996, Trebek ran the Olympic Torch in Jacksonville, Florida through a leg of its journey to Atlanta.[9]

In late 2001, during Jeopardy!'s 18th season, Trebek shaved the mustache that he had worn for over 30 years.

On Friday, January 30, 2004, Trebek escaped major injury after falling asleep behind the wheel of his pickup truck while driving alone on a rural road in the Central Coast town of Templeton, California, returning from a family home in Lake Nacimiento. The truck sideswiped a string of mailboxes, flew 45 feet[10] over an embankment, and came to rest against a utility pole in a ditch. Trebek was not cited for the accident and returned to work taping Jeopardy! the following Tuesday.[11][12]

Trebek appeared on Celebrity Poker Showdown in 2005. He came in second place in his qualifying game, losing to Cheryl Hines.

2007 heart attack

On December 11, 2007, Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering a minor heart attack in his home. He was treated with an angioplasty and was released on December 15, 2007. Trebek returned to the production of Jeopardy! as scheduled on January 14, 2008 to tape the Teen Tournament.[13][14][15]

TV and film appearances

Shows hosted

References

  1. ^ "Who Is Alex Trebek?", CBS Los Angeles biography, Apr 20, 2007. URL retrieved September 21 2007
  2. ^ Profile on tvguide.com
  3. ^ "MBA Guide 2007", Norman Gidney, BC Business Magazine April 2007, reproduced in part as "Royal Roads offers flexible schedule and multiple specialties" on the RRMC website royalroads.ca. URL retrieved September 21 2007. Trebek talks about his experiences at RRMC briefly in a 2003 interview in Esquire magazine.
  4. ^ World Vision's website says Trebek has been a sponsor of the charity since the early 1980s ("Bid on the Jeopardy set!", World Vision website, 2002). His travels publicizing the charity's work include trips to Zambia ("Alex Trebek to Visit Zambia with World Vision" World Vision website, June 21 2007) and Uganda ("Celebrities Supporting World Vision", World Vision Canada website). World Vision's website says that Trebek "been regularly involved with World Vision and is often seen on the organization's television shows" (World Vision Canada website, ibid)
  5. ^ http://www.ntra.com/stats_bios.aspx?id=2099
  6. ^ http://www.ctba.com/farms01/CRESTONFRMS.pdf
  7. ^ http://www.pedigreequery.com/rebas+gold
  8. ^ http://www.yuddy.com/celebrity/alex-trebek/bio
  9. ^ "J! Archive - Show #5365, aired Friday, December 28, 2007 - Contestant interveiew". 2007-12-28. Retrieved 2007-12-31. I'm sure there were as many heartwarming stories as there were wacky adventures associated with the carrying of the torch. I carried it in Florida.
  10. ^ "J! Archive - Show #5012, aired Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - Contestant interview". 2006-05-30. Retrieved 2006-12-29. I got you beat. When I fell asleep at the wheel, my pickup flew 45 feet.
  11. ^ "'Jeopardy!' host Trebek in car crash". Associated Press. 2004-01-31. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  12. ^ "'Jeopardy!' host hopes to return Tuesday". Associated Press. 2004-02-02. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
  13. ^ "Jeopardy! official web site Alex Trebek announcement". 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2007-12-11. Alex Trebek, host of Jeopardy!, has had a minor heart attack. He is resting comfortably in a Los Angeles hospital, and he will be back in the studio for the next scheduled tapings in January.
  14. ^ Jablon, Robert (2007-12-11). "Trebek Hospitalized With Heart Attack". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
  15. ^ "Interview with Alex Trebek". The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 2008-01-18. We've got our Teen Tournament coming up in two weeks. We just taped that. I went back to work, felt great doing it. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
Preceded by
N/A
 Host of High Rollers
1974-1976, 1978-1980 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Host of To Tell The Truth
1991 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Art Fleming 1964-1975, 1978-1979
 Host of Jeopardy!
1984-Present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
1989 – 1990
tie with Bob Barker in 1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
2003 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
2006 		Succeeded by
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