Post by shortcircuit on Aug 12, 2007 14:59:26 GMT -4
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Merv Griffin, who worked in front of television cameras as a jovial talk-show host and behind the scenes as creator of two of the longest-running TV game shows, ``Jeopardy!'' and ``Wheel of Fortune,'' has died. He was 82.
Prostate cancer that spread to other organs in an ``unexpected and immediate'' manner caused his death, said doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to a statement released by Marcia Newberger, a spokeswoman for the Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment.
Griffin was in the midst of his first week of production of a new game show, ``Merv Griffin's Crosswords,'' when he was hospitalized a month ago. He lived on a mountaintop estate in La Quinta, California, near Palm Springs.
``The Merv Griffin Show'' aired for 23 years and helped jump-start the careers of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Whitney Houston and Jerry Seinfeld. Griffin taped more than 5,500 shows and interviewed 25,000 guests, including four U.S. presidents, Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon when he was still a Beatle.
Through his production company, he created ``Jeopardy!'' in 1964, a trivia game show that has run in several iterations ever since. Griffin even composed the familiar ``Final Jeopardy!'' countdown music.
Second Act
In 1975, he hit game-show gold again with ``Wheel of Fortune,'' which later would feature Pat Sajak and Vanna White. Griffin said he based the show on the ``hangman'' contests he and his sister, Barbara, had played as children on summer- vacation drives with their parents.
Griffin received 17 Daytime Emmy Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 2005.
He sold Merv Griffin Enterprises to a unit of Coca-Cola Co. for $250 million in 1986, providing the capital for Griffin to relish life's second act as a real-estate developer, investor and thoroughbred horse owner.
The Griffin Group, established in 1987, bought and sold 17 radio stations, six casino resorts and 22 hotels, including the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The Beverly Hills- based company built a residential development and racing stable at the Griffin Ranch in La Quinta, and opened Coconut Productions to sign talented young musicians.
He wrote his autobiography in 1980, only to write another one in 2003 offering advice on ``making the good life last.''
Big Band Singer
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. was born on July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, a suburb of San Francisco. He was a piano prodigy at a young age, a talent that required him to ``spend a lot of time entertaining and impressing adults,'' he recalled in ``Merv: Making the Good Life Last,'' his 2003 memoir.
He worked in a variety of jobs as a young man, including setting pins at a bowling alley and selling war bonds on street corners. Graduating San Mateo High School in 1942, Griffin avoided military conscription because, at 240 pounds, he failed 10 physical examinations.
He took a few classes at San Mateo Junior College, only to conclude he was ``not cut out for academic life.''
Turning to his music, in 1945 he landed a spot on a nationally syndicated radio show in San Francisco. During the next five years he formed Panda Records, toured as a big-band singer with orchestra leader Freddy Martin and reached the top of the music charts with a version of ``I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.''
Switch to TV
Griffin had a brief career on the big screen in the 1950s before his success on television. He liked to boast that, in ``So This is Love'' (1953), he and Kathryn Grayson made motion picture history by sharing cinema's first open-mouthed kiss.
After moving to New York, Griffin appeared regularly on Jack Paar's ``Tonight Show'' and hosted his first game show, ``Play Your Hunch.'' In 1962, Griffin's success sitting in for Paar led NBC to create ``The Merv Griffin Show.''
It lasted just one year. NBC then tried Griffin as host of a game show ``Word for Word.''
``The Merv Griffin Show'' returned in 1965, first as a 90- minute syndication by Group W, then on CBS as a one-hour late- night show, and finally, from 1971 to 1986, as a syndicated program of Metromedia International Group Inc.
The show stood out from similar fare, such as Johnny Carson's ``Tonight Show,'' because of its commitment to finding and promoting new talent, Griffin maintained.
``I told my staff that if it came down to booking a bigger name for the umpteenth time or taking a chance on someone new, they should always go with the new person,'' he wrote.
Orson Welles
He revealed that his favorite guest was actor and director Orson Welles, ``an awesome character'' who was ``conversant on any topic I could think of.'' Welles, who died in 1985, appeared as Griffin's guest almost 50 times during a nine-year period.
In 1986, the same year he ended his talk show, Griffin sold Merv Griffin Enterprises to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which was then a unit of Coca-Cola and is now part of Sony Corp. The proceeds elevated Griffin to the ranks of the richest people in Hollywood.
At age 60, Griffin delved into his second career in business, with the stated goal of investing in things he loved.
In 2000, he donated Merv Griffin's Wickenburg Inn and Dude Ranch, a 192-acre property 70 miles northwest of Phoenix, to ChildHelp USA, a nonprofit that helps severely abused children. He was a trustee of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
The Griff
Griffin traveled the world on his private jet and on The Griff, his 142-foot, four-story yacht that plied the waters of the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Pacific. He lived on and off with actress Eva Gabor -- he called her ``my best friend'' -- in the years preceding her death in 1995.
He was also an active horseman. In 2005, his two-year-old thoroughbred Stevie Wonderboy won the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, racing's top honor.
Griffin was divorced in 1976 from his wife, Julann, who helped create ``Jeopardy.'' Their son, Tony, a vintner and executive with Merv Griffin Entertainment, a unit of the Griffin Group, and his wife, Tricia, have two children.
Griffin was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996. He concluded his 2003 book by contemplating the most appropriate wording for the headstone of a talk show host who dies.
His choice: ``Stay tuned.''
Prostate cancer that spread to other organs in an ``unexpected and immediate'' manner caused his death, said doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to a statement released by Marcia Newberger, a spokeswoman for the Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment.
Griffin was in the midst of his first week of production of a new game show, ``Merv Griffin's Crosswords,'' when he was hospitalized a month ago. He lived on a mountaintop estate in La Quinta, California, near Palm Springs.
``The Merv Griffin Show'' aired for 23 years and helped jump-start the careers of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Whitney Houston and Jerry Seinfeld. Griffin taped more than 5,500 shows and interviewed 25,000 guests, including four U.S. presidents, Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon when he was still a Beatle.
Through his production company, he created ``Jeopardy!'' in 1964, a trivia game show that has run in several iterations ever since. Griffin even composed the familiar ``Final Jeopardy!'' countdown music.
Second Act
In 1975, he hit game-show gold again with ``Wheel of Fortune,'' which later would feature Pat Sajak and Vanna White. Griffin said he based the show on the ``hangman'' contests he and his sister, Barbara, had played as children on summer- vacation drives with their parents.
Griffin received 17 Daytime Emmy Awards, including one for Lifetime Achievement in 2005.
He sold Merv Griffin Enterprises to a unit of Coca-Cola Co. for $250 million in 1986, providing the capital for Griffin to relish life's second act as a real-estate developer, investor and thoroughbred horse owner.
The Griffin Group, established in 1987, bought and sold 17 radio stations, six casino resorts and 22 hotels, including the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The Beverly Hills- based company built a residential development and racing stable at the Griffin Ranch in La Quinta, and opened Coconut Productions to sign talented young musicians.
He wrote his autobiography in 1980, only to write another one in 2003 offering advice on ``making the good life last.''
Big Band Singer
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. was born on July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, a suburb of San Francisco. He was a piano prodigy at a young age, a talent that required him to ``spend a lot of time entertaining and impressing adults,'' he recalled in ``Merv: Making the Good Life Last,'' his 2003 memoir.
He worked in a variety of jobs as a young man, including setting pins at a bowling alley and selling war bonds on street corners. Graduating San Mateo High School in 1942, Griffin avoided military conscription because, at 240 pounds, he failed 10 physical examinations.
He took a few classes at San Mateo Junior College, only to conclude he was ``not cut out for academic life.''
Turning to his music, in 1945 he landed a spot on a nationally syndicated radio show in San Francisco. During the next five years he formed Panda Records, toured as a big-band singer with orchestra leader Freddy Martin and reached the top of the music charts with a version of ``I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.''
Switch to TV
Griffin had a brief career on the big screen in the 1950s before his success on television. He liked to boast that, in ``So This is Love'' (1953), he and Kathryn Grayson made motion picture history by sharing cinema's first open-mouthed kiss.
After moving to New York, Griffin appeared regularly on Jack Paar's ``Tonight Show'' and hosted his first game show, ``Play Your Hunch.'' In 1962, Griffin's success sitting in for Paar led NBC to create ``The Merv Griffin Show.''
It lasted just one year. NBC then tried Griffin as host of a game show ``Word for Word.''
``The Merv Griffin Show'' returned in 1965, first as a 90- minute syndication by Group W, then on CBS as a one-hour late- night show, and finally, from 1971 to 1986, as a syndicated program of Metromedia International Group Inc.
The show stood out from similar fare, such as Johnny Carson's ``Tonight Show,'' because of its commitment to finding and promoting new talent, Griffin maintained.
``I told my staff that if it came down to booking a bigger name for the umpteenth time or taking a chance on someone new, they should always go with the new person,'' he wrote.
Orson Welles
He revealed that his favorite guest was actor and director Orson Welles, ``an awesome character'' who was ``conversant on any topic I could think of.'' Welles, who died in 1985, appeared as Griffin's guest almost 50 times during a nine-year period.
In 1986, the same year he ended his talk show, Griffin sold Merv Griffin Enterprises to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which was then a unit of Coca-Cola and is now part of Sony Corp. The proceeds elevated Griffin to the ranks of the richest people in Hollywood.
At age 60, Griffin delved into his second career in business, with the stated goal of investing in things he loved.
In 2000, he donated Merv Griffin's Wickenburg Inn and Dude Ranch, a 192-acre property 70 miles northwest of Phoenix, to ChildHelp USA, a nonprofit that helps severely abused children. He was a trustee of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
The Griff
Griffin traveled the world on his private jet and on The Griff, his 142-foot, four-story yacht that plied the waters of the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Pacific. He lived on and off with actress Eva Gabor -- he called her ``my best friend'' -- in the years preceding her death in 1995.
He was also an active horseman. In 2005, his two-year-old thoroughbred Stevie Wonderboy won the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, racing's top honor.
Griffin was divorced in 1976 from his wife, Julann, who helped create ``Jeopardy.'' Their son, Tony, a vintner and executive with Merv Griffin Entertainment, a unit of the Griffin Group, and his wife, Tricia, have two children.
Griffin was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1996. He concluded his 2003 book by contemplating the most appropriate wording for the headstone of a talk show host who dies.
His choice: ``Stay tuned.''
