Fond Farewell - The Answer: "A Class Act"

The Question: "Who was Alex Trebek?" The carousel of horror that is 2020 has brought about yet another demise of someone we adored. This blog has looked more like an online obituary column that a source of entertainment lately...! Sorry about that. I don't post about game shows quite as much as I once did, but they have always been a considerable part of my life. As such, so has Mr. Alex Trebek. It goes without saying that he was the longtime host of Jeopardy, but he was familiar to many of us ol' geezers long before that. Today we take a gander at some highlights.

Handsome George Alexander Trebek was born July 22nd, 1940 in Ontario, Canada to a bilingual French-English household. Industrious and intelligent from the start, he began work as a bellhop at 13 and eventually was graduated from the University of Ottowa with a degree in philosophy in 1961. He had his eye on a career in broadcast news and was an excellent debater. He did indeed go to work for the CBC announcing special events, news and sports. (Needless to say, he also perfected his exceptional enunciation during this period.)

In 1963, he'd earned a spot as host on a television series called Music Hop, introducing visiting musical guests and presenting songs as played by the house band. His life at this point was a whirl of radio announcing, sports coverage and, in 1969 a game show called Strategy.

In 1971, Trebek was denied the chance to become the new host of Hockey Night in Canada because one of the network executives didn't want to give the job to someone with a mustache (by which time Trebek was sporting in a big way!)

Presumably such a thing mattered less to American TV execs and so in 1973 Trebek moved to the States and served as host of a new game show called Wizard of Odds, involving audience members playing for money based on probabilities and statistics of a given situation.

Let's get a better look at that shit-bird wheel with handwritten names on it (and that suit he's wearing!!) Things were only going to be getting better from here, though.

Producers in the game show world rolled the dice once again on Mr. Trebek and he found himself hosting a moderately successful new show (which retains a following today among enthusiasts.)

High Rollers had contestants vying for prizes at a large dice table and he was paired with the endearing and sultry Ruta Lee (who seems to have things in hand here!) This publicity photo is benign enough until you see it in color and realize we were in mid-'70s fashion heaven (or hell, if you have a dissenting viewpoint! Ha ha!)

Quasimodo's Esmeralda never had this many colors going on at once!

Mr. T had one hellacious (and enviable) head of hair, but his on-screen wardrobe was a sort of stylish-staid combination.

Off-screen he was a chest-baring stud with all the era's hallmarks such as gradient-tinted shades, shirts almost-buttoned and gold necklace in place! He married in 1974 for the first time (to an ex-Playboy bunny turned talk show host), which lasted until 1981.

One blip on Trebek's extensive resume was the show Double Dare.

The show pitted contestants against one another in pods that suddenly closed up and became sound-proof. Likewise, the bonus round had three experts who were placed in sound-proof booths who were trotted out to make educated guesses that might ruin a contestant's chances at the big money.

He hosted a couple of short-lived shows from Canada's The $128,000 Question to Battlestars to Pitfall. And he was fast-becoming associated with the game show format as one of its premier personalities. Thus, he joined Peter Marshall, as seen here, as a celebrity contestant on Art James' The Magnificent Marble Machine (which involved a giant pinball machine!) and popped up on Celebrity Bowling as well. Things were about to become considerably more permanent for him, though.

Merv Griffin had opted to re-launch a chestnut that had first aired from 1964-1975. Original helmsman Art Fleming was invited to host, but disliked what he perceived to be a dumbing-down of the format which coincided with the move to California from New York. Thus, the job fell to Alex Trebek. This 1984 gig would last until Trebek's death on November 8th of 2020!

This is how our Alex looked on that first broadcast.

What once consisted of manually sliding panels now went "high tech" with television monitors (and neon lighting around the categories.) Of course, now, even this looks archaic in the digital age...!

These were the first three contestants and, despite Art Fleming's protest that the clues gave away too much of the answer, they were not exactly rocket scientists!

The show, very often paired with Wheel of Fortune as its lead-in, became a great success and at last Trebek had found his niche. Jeopardy made him a household name.

Even so, he continued to work on other programs such as a re-vamped Classic Concentration. Keep in mind that game shows often film one week's worth of episodes in a single day, thus a month's worth can be completed in four days...!

Classic Concentration paired him with the icily pretty model Diana Taylor (who was later replaced by Mark Goodson's daughter Marjorie, who brought rather goofy fun to the proceedings -- while they lasted.)

He also found himself filling in on a troubled revamp of To Tell the Truth. Original host Gordon Elliott had to depart due to a contract issue and his replacement Lynn Swann was woefully inadequate for the job. So a last-ditch effort was made with Trebek.

He endeared himself to me when he made a special point on his first episode to thank and pay personal tribute to one of my all-time favorite people, Miss Kitty Carlisle.

In between the end of his first marriage and the beginning of his second (in 1990), Trebek was a highly eligible man. For a time, he dated Susan Sullivan, who portrayed the heroine of Falcon Crest. By now, he'd earned a reputation as a bit of a know-it-all after his constant (albeit necessary) corrections of players on Jeopardy, sometimes with a chiding tone - which isn't fair since he had the answers right in front of him! With Sullivan demonstrating classy authority (based on... what??) in a long-running series of Tylenol commercials, I thought they were the ultimate in intellectual yet attractive couples, but it wasn't to be...

Eventually, a yearly Celebrity Jeopardy tournament was held (glittering Donna Mills was among the first participants) in which various names demonstrated their smarts (or worrisome lack thereof...!)

This led to some popular parodies on Saturday Night Live. For the record, I never thought that Will Ferrell had the slightest thing to do with Alex, nor did I faint over Darrell Hammond's Sean Connery impression, but they were a hit together. I include this today as an ironic twist on the fact that we lost both Alex and Sean within about a week's time of one another.

As the years pressed on, the curly-haired, mustached Trebek mutated into an elegant, clean-cut, older, silver gentleman before our eyes.

Mr. Trebek won Outstanding Game Show host Emmys in 1989, 1990, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2019 and 2020. In 2011, he received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy and he holds the Guinness World Record for the most episodes of a game show hosted by the same person (a position previously held by Bob Barker.)

The world was given a nasty surprise in 2019 when Trebek revealed that he had stage IV pancreatic cancer and was going to undergo intense chemotherapy in an attempt to beat it. (He was given an 18% chance of living beyond one year.) He did live well beyond a year and, more importantly, kept working! Despite pain and fatigue, Alex Trebek was filming new episodes of his beloved show just two weeks after undergoing surgery and just two weeks before he passed away at age 80.

The day after Trebek's passing, the producer of Jeopardy presented a brief prologue and tribute to the show's brave host just before the show came on, explaining that Alex would want his remaining episodes to air. It was a heartfelt, yet utterly tasteful message that sent legions of his fans grabbing for the Kleenex. 

The set (newly rebuilt and reconfigured thanks to COVID19) was then shown empty...

...before going dim altogether. And it's certainly no stretch to suggest that an era has passed and that the show will never be the same again. When Mr. Trebek's final filmed episode appears (on Christmas Day... oh the humanity!), it's safe to say there will be more Kleenex in use around the country.

We dearly loved Jeopardy (scarcely missed it) and dearly loved Alex Trebek. I don't think there are too many other men out there who left this earth in a more graceful fashion, maintaining his perspective, his dignity and his integrity (even his sense of humor) right up until the inevitable final answer.

Disastrous Demise: Our Sean is Gone...

You may be surprised to see the passing of Sir Sean Connery marked with my label for those beloved stars who helped contribute to the 1970-1980 cycle of disaster movies which changed my life. It's not something he is readily identified with. However, he did headline one of the entries in the genre, giving him a special place in my heart apart from his many other remarkable achievements. We did a pretty expansive photo essay on the physical charms of Connery quite some time ago (which bears revisiting!) if you wish to look him over carefully here. Today, we're going to touch on some of the (other) photos and projects that happen to be favorites of mine, though they may not be his most notable roles. Despite being known far and wide as the first James Bond, he had a remarkable range of movies under his belt when he passed away on Halloween, 2020 at the age of 90.

Born August 25th, 1930 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Thomas Sean Connery was 6'2" tall at age twelve. He joined the navy at age 16 and thereafter performed practically every job imaginable from lifeguard to milk deliveryman to artists model to coffin polisher! An interest in bodybuilding inadvertently led to a gig on stage in South Pacific and, from there, he worked on British TV and the occasional movie, honing his craft.

Connery had long since proven his virility whether it be taking on several members of a violent gang at once or tossing Johnny Stompanato onto his keister following some threatening behavior during Another Time, Another Place (1958) opposite Lana Turner. He had supporting roles in a few moderately successful films before landing the lead in the color Disney musical Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959.)

It was 1962's Dr. No, his debut as super spy James Bond, that really put him on the map, though. Seen here with sultry Ursula Andress, he amassed thousands of fan letters a week and could hardly walk along the street without being called out as the character (a fact that perturbed him.) Despite the risk of typecasting, even he couldn't deny the staggering success of the part and he proceeded to more films in the series.

To the delight of virtually everyone with their vision intact, he was often shirtless in the franchise and frequently taking a roll in the hay in-between thwarting bad guys.

In the midst of his time as Bond, he worked for Alfred Hitchcock in the psychological drama Marnie (1964), shocking the director by asking to see a script first. (He wanted to be sure he would be doing nothing "Bond-like" in the story.) Some less empathetic or more shallow viewers (such as myself!) had trouble understanding how Tippi Hedren could remain frigid while wed to the palpably sexy Connery.

Regardless of the international success of the James Bond movies, Connery was itching to move on and explore other types of roles. This, even though his latest, Thunderball (1965), was the highest-grossing one to that time and the number one money earner in the U.S. for that year.

Gracing the cover of Life magazine, Connery was now a household name. He walked away from the franchise following 1967's You Only Live Twice, replaced by George Lazenby. (I wonder if Burt Reynolds was in any way inspired by this photo when he opted to wear a torn up scuba top in Deliverance (1972.)

Many of his films from this stage were not barn-burners, but he was exploring different genres and settings, such as in the western Shalako (1968.) Many people dislike it and find there to be no chemistry between him and Brigitte Bardot, but I've always been fascinated by the movie. Perhaps it is because of the way the characters, in their European finery, are eventually deconstructed by some (very!) hostile Apaches. This is a trope that I always enjoyed in the disaster movies.

With The Anderson Tapes (1971), Connery finally scored a decent box office hit and established success outside the Bond franchise. He had, however, by then committed to make one more - Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - whereupon he flatly stated, "Never again!" I always enjoyed The Anderson Tapes, directed by Sidney Lumet, who was a favorite of Connery's.

Surely one of his most unusual roles (not to mention scantily-clad ones!) came with 1974's Zardoz. This part had initially been intended for Burt Reynolds, which one can sort of imagine (though I don't know that Burt could have properly pulled this look off either.)

Definitely pursuing new horizons on the opposite end of the "shaken, not stirred" spectrum.

Also in 1974, he worked for Sidney Lumet again as one of a train-full of suspects in Murder on the Orient Express, a much-beloved movie of mine. He proceeded on to sweeping historical films such as The Wind and the Lion (1975), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Robin and Marian (1976.)

On the heels of A Bridge Too Far (1977) and The Great Train Robbery (1978), Connery filmed his entry into the then-hot genre of the all-star natural disaster movie, in this case Meteor (1979.) Co-starring was a somewhat drab Natalie Wood, who accepted her part because it permitted her to speak Russian.

Although the movie wasn't cheap (and was directed by Ronald Neame of The Poseidon Adventure, 1972, fame!), it nonetheless had a cheap look, in particular where the title object was concerned. At least he was surrounded by a variety of esteemed performers from Karl Malden to Martin Landau to Brian Keith and even Henry Fonda, though most of them were far from their highest peak, career-wise.

Connery reportedly lost his shit once when a deluge of disgusting mud was unleashed onto him before he was expecting it, which is rather understandable.

Nonetheless, most of the on-set shots from the movie seem to depict a happy experience. The day this climax was filmed, an impish Connery pretended that he was going to drag a visiting Dinah Shore into the muck with him! The movie is not terrific, but I love every one of these films, which sparked my childhood imagination incredibly.

After filming Cuba (1979), Connery was off-screen for two years when he returned with a new look in Outland (1981.) A reworking of High Noon (1952) in outer space, he sported a scruffy beard and a close-cropped hairpiece.

The still-handsome, still-virile remained in demand as an actor (though shooting overruns on Outland cost him a featured role in Chariots of Fire, 1981, a Best Picture Oscar-winner.) In 1983, he would do something he swore he'd never do...

In 1983, Connery was coaxed back to the role which made him famous, James Bond, in the aptly-titled (and suggested by his wife) Never Say Never Again. Made by a rival company of the one who produced the franchise, it was a remake of Thunderball, a property partly owned by said rival. While reasonably successful, it was a highly-troubled production and that truly was the end of Connery in the role.

Mr. C was aging handsomely and lent his authoritative and commanding presence to various films including, as seen here, Highlander (1986.) He could still star in a picture (such as The Name of the Rose, 1986), but more often than not he was a prominent costar for much of the time now.

In this portrait from Highlander, he somewhat resembles Stanley Baker, a Welsh actor on whose film he worked way back in 1957.

The Untouchables (1987), in which he lent some heart to the Brian De Palma redux of the famed television series, copped him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and he parlayed that into a wave of new high-profile roles. Here, he's seen as Harrison Ford's father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989.)

Among many other hit movies of this period was The Hunt for Red October (1990), in which he helped bolster Alec Baldwin's debut as Jack Ryan in what would become a series (though Harrison Ford took over the next two entries, none of which contained Connery again.) He remained a sought-after performer up into the millennium until The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) soured him on the process and he retired. A decision to decline the role of Gandolf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (claiming not to understand the script) cost him an estimated $450 million! But Connery virtually always did things his way.

Easily one of the most notable movie actors to come out of Scotland, Connery had come from delivering milk on a truck route to enjoying international superstardom. Sadly, his final years were affected by the onset of dementia, one of life's more cruel diseases.

He's now at rest, but left behind one impressive resume of stirring movies. (I guess I could have cropped out these bottles! But, hey, like many actors and others he liked a drink or two after work...)

The End!