Comprehensive information and links about Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek , born July 22, 1940), is a Canadian-born American television personality, best known as the host of the game show

Early life

Alex Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, to George Edward Trebek, a Ukrainian immigrant father and Lucille Lagacean, a French-Canadian mother. He was educated by the Jesuits before attending the University of Ottawa with a degree in Philosophy. Interested in a career in broadcast news, he began his broadcasting career working for the CBC as a newscaster. Specializing in national news and covering a wide range of special events for the CBC's radio and television divisions, Trebek earned a reputation as a broadcaster who maintained his poise and composure in the most difficult settings.

(now hosted by Daniel Richler). In 1973 he moved to the United States and worked for NBC as host of a new game show, . A year later, Trebek hosted the popular Merrill Heatter–Bob Quigley game show High Rollers, which had two incarnations on NBC (1974–76 and 1978–80). In 1984 he was chosen to host the revived version of the trivia game show (replacing Art Fleming who had retired), and has been its host ever since. He was also the host of . He is one of three hosts to emcee a game show in the United States and a game show in Canada at the same time (Jim Perry and Geoff Edwards, both of whom were U.S.-born, are the other two).

Trebek has sported an iconic moustache during various phases of his career.

He is divorced from his first wife, Elaine Callei, and has been married to his second wife, Jean Currivan-Trebek, a real estate businesswoman and the mother of his two children, since April 30, 1990.

Trebek was also a celebrity guest at WWF's annual event Wrestlemania VII, on March 24, 1991, where he served as a special guest announcer, interviewing wrestlers. Most memorable was when he interviewed Jake "The Snake" Roberts and was scared away by Jake's snake, Damien.

Honors and Awards

Having skillfully guided the series to years of unprecedented success, Alex Trebek has been personally honored with three Emmy Awards (best television host) and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located at 6501 Hollywood Boulevard, near those for Ann-Margret and Vincent Price).

Trebek is active with a number of other educational organizations and charities, donates a great deal of his free time to touring overseas with the USO, and serving as a spokesman for World Vision. A favorite role of his is to host the annual in the U.S. and Canada. He is on the boards of the National Geographic Society Education Foundation and the National Advisory Council for the Literary Volunteers of America. Active with the World Vision charitable organization, he has traveled to many Third World countries with World Vision projects, taping reports on the group's efforts on behalf of children around the world.

Trebek Hall

There is also a tale about Trebek that is in constant circulation at his alma mater, the University of Ottawa. Around 1999, a new dormitory was constructed on campus. It is said that the administration had planned to name it "Trebek Hall", but when Trebek was asked he answered, "Not until I'm dead." To this day the residence is still named, simply, "New Residence." It is interesting to note, however, that it is the only University of Ottawa residence without a "proper" name, while others go by names such as Marchand Residence, Thompson Residence, etc. Additionally, it is no longer the newest residence on campus, as another was completed in 2004 and named "Hyman Soloway Residence" in 2005. This has led many students to joke that the university's administration is waiting for Trebek to change his mind or die.

. Sajak's wife was in charge of revealing the letters on the letterboard (a duty normally handled by White). Trebek also presided as a sub host for on a few occasions before the 1997 joke. In August of 1980, about one month after NBC had cancelled "High Rollers" Alex Trebek sub hosted on "Wheel Of Fortune" for a sick Chuck Woolery.

cast members portraying over-the-top versions of real-life celebrities. Ferrell's Trebek was the straight man in the skits, often making snarky and sarcastic comments about the stupidity of the celebrities.On Ferrell's last episode of the program in 2002, Trebek himself appeared alongside his counterpart to congratulate his work on the program's

Recent events

Trebek became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1998. He now lives in Studio City, California with his wife (Jean) and two children (Matthew and Emily). He owns and manages Creston Farms, a 700 acre (2.8 km²) ranch near Paso Robles in Creston, California which breeds, trains and provides state-of-the-art care for thoroughbred race horses and until recently he also owned a winery called Creston Vineyards.

In an interview with a talk show host, Trebek complained that "I had only been a citizen for two weeks when I received a summons to appear for jury duty!"

On January 30, 2004, Trebek escaped injury after falling asleep behind the wheel of his pickup truck. He bumped into a string of mailboxes and ended up in a ditch. At that time, Trebek was driving by himself on a rural road.

"Brad Rutter is congratulated for his first place victory by Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, at the Ultimate Tournament of Champions." : In the tongue-in-cheek X-Files episode entitled "Jose-Chung's from outer space", Trebek appeared as himself in a character's flashback sequence. In that brief scene he appeared to lead a double life as a man in black in a government conspiracy to intimidate and ridicule UFO witnesses. Any UFO witness who claimed to have been intimidated from testifying by Alex Trebek, "the game show host?!" would appear to be hallucinating.: In the Christmas episode Miracle on Evergreen Terrace, Bart burns down his family's Christmas tree and presents, and the whole town chips in to give them a worthwhile Christmas. The town soon finds out that Bart lied, and thinks that the family had supported this, so they demand their money back. The family had already spent all of the money on a new car, but it gets destroyed by the snow. To get the town's money back, Marge decides to go onto Jeopardy! but finishes well in the negative. Trebek meets up with Marge backstage after the filming and says to her, "I asked you before the game if you knew the rules and you said you did," implying Marge owed as much money as she was in the hole (not true on the real show), and sends two burly "judges" after Lisa and her.