Following his one year battle with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Alex Trebek has passed away at the age of 80.  The news was revealed earlier today (Nov.8) on the Jeopardy! Instagram page, “Jeopardy! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends. Thank you, Alex.”

 

 

On March 6, 2019, Alex shared his cancer diagnoses via Instagram:

“Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer,” he said. “Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working.  And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers, also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease.  Truth told, I have to! Because under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy! for three more years! So help me. Keep the faith and we’ll win. We’ll get it done.”

 

 

George Alexander Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ont. on July 22, 1940.  In 1961, he graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in Philosophy.  Following his graduation, Alex became interested in broadcast journalism and news reporting, and in 1966, Alex began his career at CBC as a sportscaster and news reporter.

 

Alex then moved to the US and hosted a handful of TV shows such as High Rollers and Card Sharks.  In 1984, Merv Griffin along with CBS signed Alex to be host of a new game show called Jeopardy! From 1987 to 1991, Alex was a dup-game show host, hosting both Jeopardy! and Classic Concentration, a memory-match game, at the same time.

 


Throughout his career, Alex has won five Daytime Emmy Awards for ‘Outstanding Game Show Host’, he holds the Guinness World Record for most episodes of a game show host (6,829 episodes as of June 2014) and became the best-known game show host in the industry.

 

In a 2008 interview, Alex revealed, “I’ve always been up on trivia, and on general knowledge. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve forgotten more.  It’s more difficult for me to retrieve it now, from my little brain cells, which are shrinking and dissolving by the minute. If a clue has to do with something I’m interested in, I’m more likely to retain the information. If it’s not, then I read it and it’s gone. But I must retain some element of it, because on some occasions, I’ll tune in and watch, and I’ll be able to come up with correct responses in subjects that I really know nothing about.”

 


Alex also made guest appearances on various TV shows such as How I Met Your Mother and Hot in Cleveland.

 

 

Alex is survived by his wife, Jean Currivan, and their two children, Matthew and Emily.

 

 

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It’s time to celebrate dads like Alex! Click the link in our bio to see how Jean and the kids are celebrating #FathersDay.

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