Profile of Alex Trebek on Famous Like Me

George Alexander Trebek (birth name Giorgi Suka-Alex Trebek, born July 22, 1940), is a well known Canadian game show host of the syndicated version of the popular Jeopardy! television program for more than 20 years. He has hosted numerous game/quiz shows and has appeared many times in movies and television series, usually as himself.

Early life

Alex Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, to George Edward Trebek, a Ukrainian immigrant father and Lucille Lagacean, a French-Canadian mother. He was educated by the Jesuits before attending 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. Specializing in national news and covering a wide range of special events for the CBC's radio and television divisions, Trebek earned a reputation as a broadcaster who maintained his poise and composure in the most difficult settings.

Rise in television

In 1966 he got his own game show, entitled Reach for the Top (now hosted by Daniel Richler). 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). In 1984 he was chosen to host the revived version of the trivia game show Jeopardy! (replacing Art Fleming who had retired), and has been its host ever since. He was also the host of Classic Concentration and the Canadian game show Pitfall.

In 1991, he became the only host in TV history to helm three daily national game shows at once -- Jeopardy! , Classic Concentration, and To Tell the Truth.

Trebek has sported an iconic moustache during various phases of his career.

He is divorced from his first wife, Elaine Callei, and has been married to his second wife, Jean Currivan-Trebek, a real estate businesswoman and the mother of his 2 children, since April 30, 1990.

Trebek was also a celebrity guest at WWF's annual event Wrestlemania VII, on March 24th, 1991, where he served as a special guest announcer, interviewing wrestlers... Most memorable when he interviewed Jake "The Snake" Roberts and was scared away by Jake's snake, Damien.

Honors and Awards

Having skillfully guided the series to years of unprecedented success, Alex Trebek has been personally honored with two Emmy Awards (best television host) 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 other educational organizations and charities, donates a great deal of his free time to touring overseas with the USO, and serving as a spokesman for World Vision. A favorite role of his is host of the annual National Geographic Bee in the U.S. and Canada. He is on the boards of the National Geographic Society Education Foundation and the National Advisory Council for the Literary Volunteers of America. 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.

Trebek Hall

There is also a tale about Trebek that is in constant circulation at his alma mater, the University of Ottawa. Around 1999, a new dormitory was constructed on campus. It is said that the administration had planned to name it "Trebek Hall", but when Trebek was asked he answered, "Not until I'm dead." To this day the residence is still named, simply, "New Residence." It is interesting to note, however, that it is the only University of Ottawa residence without a "proper" name, such as Marchand Residence, Thompson Residence, etc. Additionally, it is no longer the newest residence on campus, as another was completed in 2004 and named "Hyman Soloway Residence" in 2005. This has lead many students to joke that the university's administration is waiting for Trebek to change his mind or die.

Just kidding

In 1997, the producers of Wheel of Fortune (the same ones who also produce Jeopardy!) were so impressed by Trebek's hosting skills that they let him switch positions with Wheel's Pat Sajak for an April Fool's edition of both shows. While Sajak took over the hosting duties on Jeopardy!, Trebek had Sajak and his cohost Vanna White as contestants on Wheel. Sajak's wife was in charge of revealing the letters on the letterboard (a duty normally handled by White).

Parodies

• On Second City Television, Eugene Levy portrayed a game show host named Alex Trebel who hosted a parody version of College Bowl.

• Will Ferrell created a skit on Saturday Night Live entitled Celebrity Jeopardy! where he portrayed Alex Trebek asking humorously simplified versions of Jeopardy! questions to actors playing over-the-top versions of real-life celebrities.

Recent events

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 & Emily). He owns and manages Creston Farms, a 700 acre (2.8 km²) ranch near Paso Robles in Creston, California which breeds, trains and provides state-of-the-art care for thoroughbred race horses and until recently he also owned a winery called Creston Vineyards.

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!"

On January 30, 2004, Trebek escaped injury after falling asleep behind the wheel of his pickup truck. He bumped into a string of mailboxes and ended up in a ditch. At that time, Trebek was driving by himself on a rural road.

During the filming of the Jeopardy! College Championship on October 01, 2005, Trebek answered questions from the audience at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. At one point, he called on "the young man with the glasses" to ask a question. A girl with very short hair, visibly stunned, stuttered a question to Alex asking if her friends could go on stage after the show. Alex's reply started with "Ah I see you're not actually a man", to the bewilderment of 3000 people.

TV and film appearances

Cameos

• X-Files: In the tongue-in-cheek X-Files episode entitled "Jose-Chung's from outer space", Trebek appeared as himself in a character's flashback sequence. In that brief scene he appeared to lead a double life as a man in black in a government conspiracy to intimidate and ridicule UFO witnesses. Any UFO witness who claimed to have been intimidated from testifying by Alex Trebek, "the game show host?!", would appear to be hallucinating.

• The Simpsons In the infamous Christmas episode Miracle on Evergreen Terrace, Bart burns down his family's Christmas tree and presents, the whole town chips in to give them a worthwhile Christmas. The town soon finds out that Bart was lying, and thought that the family were supporting this; so they demand to get their money back. The family have already spent all their money on a new car, but it gets destroyed, by the snow. To get the town's money back, Marge decides to go onto Jeopardy â€” but finishes well in the negative. Trebek met up with Marge backstage and said to Marge, "You told me you knew the rules", implying Marge owed as much money as she was in the hole (not true on the real show), and sent two burly "judges" after her and Lisa.

Shows Alex Trebek has hosted:

• Music Hop (1952-1972), Trebek hosted from 1963-1964
• Vacation Time (1964), co-host
• Reach for the Top (1966-1973), Quizmaster
• The Wizard of Odds (1973)
• Double Dare (1976-1977)
• The $128,000 Question (1977-1978)
• Battlestars (1981-1983)
• Pitfall (1983)
• Jeopardy! (1984-present)
• Classic Concentration (1987-1991)
• To Tell the Truth (1990-1991), host for February to May 1991
• Wheel of Fortune - Host for one episode in 1997, also a substitute host in 1979
• Barris & Company - Co-Host/Announcer
• High Rollers - Host (NBC)
• Outside/Inside - Host
• Pick and Choose - Host
• Stars on Ice - Host
• Strategy - Host
• Super Jeopardy! - Host
• T.G.I.F. - Announcer
• Live from the Hollywood Bowl - Host of annual live broadcasts.

Famous Quotes

• "Good guess...............but no."
• "Pick again (as he makes a hand gesture towards the player)"
• "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, sorry."
• "Definitely"
• "Player 3, you're still in control."
• "Congratulations to today's big winner...Player 2."
• "Precisely. Pick again."
• "Yes."
• "Your choice, Player 1."
• "Sorry, you left out one syllable."

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Alex Trebek