Wink Martindale, legendary game show host, dies at 91

LOS ANGELES — Wink Martindale, the charismatic tv character whose identify turned almost synonymous with American sport reveals throughout his decades-long profession, died Sunday in Rancho Mirage, California. He was 91.

His loss of life was introduced by a household spokesperson, who stated Martindale was “surrounded by family and his beloved wife of 49 years, Sandra Martindale,” in accordance with Deadline. No reason for loss of life was specified.

Winston Conrad “Wink” Martindale’s 74-year profession spanned each radio and tv, starting in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee, the place he began as a disc jockey at simply 17 years outdated, Deadline reported.

Martindale performed a small however important function in rock and roll historical past whereas working at Memphis station WHBQ. On July 10, 1954, in accordance with his household’s assertion cited by Deadline, Martindale phoned Elvis Presley’s mom to ask the younger singer to the station after fellow DJ Dewey Phillips performed Presley’s debut document “That’s All Right” repeatedly on air. This led to Elvis’s first-ever radio interview, a second the household described as one the place “music was changed forever.”

Martindale himself achieved recording success with the spoken-word piece “Deck of Cards” in 1959, which reached #7 on the Billboard Scorching 100 and offered over a million copies.

After relocating to Los Angeles in 1959, Martindale labored at a number of outstanding radio stations together with KHJ, KRLA, KFWB, and KMPC, constructing a considerable following as a radio character earlier than discovering his true calling on tv.

Although he had earlier tv expertise internet hosting native reveals in Memphis, together with “Teenage Dance Party” the place Elvis Presley as soon as appeared, Martindale’s nationwide breakthrough got here in 1964 when he started internet hosting NBC’s “What’s This Song?” This marked the start of a prolific sport present internet hosting profession that would come with such common applications as “Gambit” and his most notable success, “Tic-Tac-Dough.”

He went on to hold internet hosting duties on quite a few different sport reveals together with “High Rollers,” “Trivial Pursuit,” and “Debt,” Deadline famous. Martindale later turned a producer as effectively, launching “Headline Chasers” in 1985 in affiliation with Merv Griffin.

All through his profession, Martindale acquired quite a few honors together with a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame in 2006 and a Beale Avenue Observe on Memphis’s Beale Avenue Stroll of Fame in 2024. He was additionally among the many first inductees into the American TV Sport Present Corridor of Fame.

Past his leisure profession, Martindale was identified for his charitable work, internet hosting telethons for Cerebral Palsy and St. Jude Kids’s Hospital, amongst different causes.

Martindale is survived by his spouse Sandra, sister Geraldine, daughters Lisa, Lyn and Laura, in addition to quite a few grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and an “honorary son” named Eric, in accordance with Deadline.