He was a singer, actor, television personality and one of the most influential talk show hosts in America's history. His birth name was Mervyn, but the world knew him as Merv Griffin.

The 82-year-old died Sunday after being hospitalized earlier in the week for a recurrence of prostate cancer.

Born in San Mateo, Calif., Griffin created two of the most popular game shows in syndicated history. "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" remain in production more than two decades after they began.

Griffin's career lasted decades.

"I've been in the public eye for more than 50 years as Merv Griffin, not as somebody else's creation," he said, according to Internet Movie Database Web site. "I've never pretended to be someone I wasn't."

The 32-time Emmy nominee actually escorted 17 golden gals home for his work on "The Merv Griffin Show," according to the official Web site for Griffin's company, The Griffin Group.

During the shows 23 years on air, Griffin interviewed "more than 25,000 guests and hosted 5,500 shows," his site said.

Before his television career began, Griffin wrote songs, sang on local radio stations and toured with Freddy Martin and His Orchestra, according to imdb.com.

In 1950, he struck gold with "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts," when it reached the number one spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies, according to imdb.com.

His other hits included "Wilhelmina" and "Never Been Kissed." While continuing to record albums, Griffin began a silver-screen career. He appeared in hit movies with stars like Will Rogers and Kathryn Grayson.

"If there was anything really important that people didn't know about me by now, then I would have to be world's greatest actor," Griffin said, according to imdb.com. "Forget Brando, forget Hoffman, forget DeNiro. … I would have to be the best."



Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=3471627&page=1

Merv Griffin, popular talk-show host, creator of 'Jeopardy!' dies
By BOB THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
08/12/2007 08:44:16 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES—Merv Griffin, who went from big-band era crooner to fabulously successful TV talk show host before making a fortune as the creator of two of television's most popular game shows and then parlaying that into a billion-dollar hotel empire, died Sunday. He was 82.

Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his the family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment. Griffin was recently hospitalized for a recurrence of the disease, which had been treated successfully more than 10 years ago.

Griffin, who created the "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" game shows, began his career as a $100-a-week radio singer in San Francisco, quickly moving on to become the featured vocalist in Freddy Martin's band.

That led to a brief film career, in which he appeared opposite Doris Day and Kathryn Grayson, and later to a successful TV career as host of "The Merv Griffin Show," which aired for more than 20 years.

His biggest financial break, however, came from inventing and producing "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune."

After they became the hottest game shows in television, Griffin sold the rights to them to the Columbia Pictures Television Unit for $250 million, retaining a share of the profits. He started spreading the sale money around in treasury bonds, stocks and other investments, but quickly became bored.

"I said, 'I'm not going to sit around and clip coupons for the rest of my life,'" he recalled in 1989. "That's when Barron Hilton said, 'Merv, do you wanna buy the Beverly Hilton?' I couldn't believe it."
Griffin bought the hotel, home to the Golden Globe awards, for a little more than $100 million and spent $25 million more refurbishing it. He sold it in 2003.

He also acquired Resorts International, which operated hotels and casinos from Atlantic City, N.J., to the Caribbean. For a time that touched off a feud with real estate tycoon Donald Trump whose own hotel-casino operations went head-to-head with Griffin's in Atlantic City.

"My father was a visionary," his son, Tony Griffin, said in a statement issued Sunday. "He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized."

Griffin was working on the first week of production of a new syndicated game show, "Merv Griffin's Crosswords," his son said, when he entered the hospital a month ago.

READ MORE HERE.

I remember catching his show on KVOS. Arthur Treacher, showing his jacket lining, and some great guests. Merv was a TV original.

It is too bad that he stayed in the closet. He would have made a good role model.

Quoted from freak692

"I've never pretended to be someone I wasn't."

Merv actually said that?!

He hosted a game show that channel 5 used to run on weekday mornings when I was a kid. Can't remember the name of it now.

-OR60-