Alex Trebek is one of the better known personalities in the tv landscape! He is Canadian- American!
So let’s find out some trivia and facts about his life!
- His full name is George Alexander Trebek
- He is a Canadian- American television personality
- He has been the host of the syndicated game show Jeopardy!
- Since it was revived in 1984
- He has also hosted a number of other game shows
- Including The Wizard of Odds, Double Dare, High Rollers, Battlestars, Classic Concentration, and To Tell the Truth
- Alex Trebek is contracted to host Jeopardy! until 2022
- On March 6, 2019, he announced that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer
- Alex Trebek has made appearances in numerous television series, usually portraying himself
- A native of Canada
- He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1998
- Alex Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada on July 22, 1940
- He is the son of George Edward Trebek
- A chef who had emigrated from Ukraine as a child
- And Lucille Lagacé
- She was born on April 14, 1921
- A Franco- Ontarian
- He grew up in a bilingual French- English household
- Alex Trebek graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in philosophy in 1961
- While a university student, he was a member of the English Debating Society
- At the time, he was interested in a career in broadcast news
- Before completing his degree, Alex Trebek began his career in 1961 working for the CBC
- He would eventually read the national news and cover a wide range of special events for the CBC’s radio and television divisions
- Including curling and horse racing
- Alex Trebek married businesswoman Elaine Callei in 1974
- The couple had no children and divorced in 1981
- In 1990, he married Jean Currivan, a real estate project manager from New York
- They have two children, Matthew and Emily
- In 1996, Trebek ran the Olympic Torch in Jacksonville, Florida, through a leg of its journey to Atlanta
- Alex Trebek became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1998
- In late 2001 during Jeopardy!’s 18th season, Trebek shaved the mustache that he had worn for over 30 years
- He wore a fake mustache for the first half of the April 1, 2008, episode as an April Fools’ joke
- In summer 2014, Alex Trebek regrew the mustache for the 31st season of Jeopardy!
- Only to shave it off again a month into the season
- Alex Trebek grew out a full beard at the beginning of the 2018 season
- Shaving it down to a goatee for the second episode
- And a mustache by the second week
- Alex Trebek owned and managed a 700-acre (2.8 km2) ranch near Paso Robles in Creston, California
- Known as Creston Farms
- There he bred and trained thoroughbred race horses
- Alex Trebek’s colt, Reba’s Gold, is the stakes-winning son of Slew o’ Gold
- Alex Trebek sold the operation in 2008 and the property is now an event center called Windfall Farms
- In 2018, in an interview with Vulture, Trebek stated that he was a political moderate and registered independent
- Neither conservative nor liberal, with some libertarian leanings
- On December 11, 2007, Trebek suffered a minor heart attack in his home
- But returned to work as scheduled in January
- He injured an Achilles tendon, requiring six weeks in a cast
- While chasing a burglar who had entered his San Francisco hotel room on July 27, 2011
- He suffered a mild heart attack on June 23, 2012
- But returned to work in July
- On January 4, 2018, the verified Twitter account of Jeopardy! announced that Trebek had suffered a fall
- And over the winter break of Jeopardy! taping, underwent surgery for a subdural hematoma
- On December 15, 2017, Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after reportedly experiencing complications from his fall in October
- He nderwent surgery to remove blood clots from his brain the following day
- Alex Trebek required a short medical leave
- He returned to regular hosting duty in mid-January 2018
- In 2018, while being interviewed by Harvey Levin on Fox News, Alex Trebek floated the idea of retirement
- He added that he might continue if he is “not making too many mistakes” but would make an “intelligent decision” as to when he should give up the emcee role
- In October that year, he signed a new contract to continue as host through 2022
- On March 6, 2019, Trebek announced that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer
- In a prepared video announcement of the diagnosis, Alex Trebek noted that his prognosis was poor
- But that he would aggressively fight the cancer in hopes of beating the odds
- He would continue hosting Jeopardy!
- For as long as he was able
- Joking that his contract obligated him to do so for three more years
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