Alex Trebek: Longtime Host of Jeopardy! Dies at 80

Alex Trebek was a Canadian-American television host, best known as the host of Jeopardy! for more than 36 years. Born George Alexander Trebek on July 22, 1940, in Sudbury, Ontario, he began his career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation after studying philosophy at the University of Ottawa.

Trebek hosted game shows including High Rollers, Classic Concentration and The $128,000 Question before taking over Jeopardy! in 1984. He hosted 6,829 episodes of Jeopardy!, a Guinness World Record, and won seven Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show Host in his lifetime, with another awarded after his death. He also hosted the National Geographic Bee finals from 1989 to 2013.

Trebek became a U.S. citizen in 1998 and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017. He donated millions of dollars to the University of Ottawa. He married Elaine Callei in 1974 and Jean Currivan in 1990, with whom he had two children. He announced in March 2019 that he had stage IV pancreatic cancer and kept hosting until his death at his home in Los Angeles on November 8, 2020, at age 80.

Achievements: Hosted Jeopardy! (1984-2020), Guinness World Record for most episodes hosted of a game show (6,829), Daytime Emmy Awards, Officer of the Order of Canada (2017).

Birth: July 22, 1940 - Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

Profession: Television host.

Interesting Facts: His final Jeopardy! episodes aired in January 2021. He appeared as himself in The Simpsons and Cheers.