Who is Alex Trebek?
Image courtesy of marabuchi via Flickr
This Canada 150 ambassador has worked as a television host for over 50 years, owns about 100 suits, and his mustache has made international news. Who is Alex Trebek?
Born in Sudbury, Ontario in 1940, the Jeopardy! host started his broadcasting career at the CBC, working as a newscaster and sportscaster before landing his first hosting gig, with an American Bandstand knock-off called Music Hop from 1963 to 1964. In 1973, after more time honing his broadcasting skills, Trebek accepted a request from fellow Canadian entertainer Alan Thicke to audition for an American game show called Wizard of Odds. Though that program would last only one year, Trebek’s entry into the U.S. market led to other hosting opportunities on programs like Double Dare, The $128,000 Question and The New High Rollers. In 1984, he landed the role that has made him a pop culture icon and household name.
Trebek joined the fourth (and subsequently most popular) version of a show that has long charmed audiences with its unique twist on the trivia format: On Jeopardy!, contestants are presented with clues framed in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses as questions. During its peak popularity, the program has drawn nightly audiences of 15 to 20 million people. Three years ago, Trebek set the Guinness World Record as the longest-running television game show host, unseating everyone’s favourite tanned grandpa, Bob Barker. At the time, he had this to say:
Luck is very important no matter what your career choice is. With me and Jeopardy!, the fact that I was lucky enough to be hired as host of this program and lucky enough for this program to have caught on with as many viewers as it has, that has certainly been an extremely important factor with the success of the show and my longevity on the program.
While luck may play a role in his success, it’s Trebek’s poise and composure that have earned him five Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show Host, a Peabody Award, induction into the California Broadcasting Association’s Hall of Fame, stars on both Canada’s and Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and countless other honours—including the Order of Canada.
However, it’s his lighter side and sense of humour that has helped cement his status as a household name. Clearly a fan of self-parody, Trebek has appeared as an actor, largely playing himself, in over 70 movies and television shows, ranging from Golden Girls to Cheers, The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Charlie’s Angels and so many more. What’s more, the character of Alex Trebek has been portrayed by Eugene Levy on SCTV and lampooned by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live (“Titles, Mr. Connery, not titties”). The real Trebek maintains his self-deprecating humour off screen too: earlier this month he gave an interview to The Daily Beast in which he talked about a time in the 1970s when he unknowingly ate half a dozen hash brownies, then spent the next three days laid up at a friend’s house.
Trebek became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1984, though he continues to give back to his birth country. He was named the honorary president of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, due to his championing of geographical education; he has given generously to his alma mater, the University of Ottawa; and this year he is acting as an international ambassador during Canada’s sesquicentennial.
Though this entertainer has lived and worked in America for decades, he will forever loom large in Canadian hearts. Who is Alex Trebek?
This story first appeared in Passport2017, a Strategic Content Labs and Heritage Canada project.