LOS ANGELES — Merv Griffin, the big-band-era crooner turned impresario who parlayed his "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire, died Sunday. He was 82.
Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his family.
From his beginning as a $100-a-week San Francisco radio singer, Griffin moved on as vocalist for Freddy Martin's band, sometime actor in films and TV-game and talk-show host. He made Forbes' list of richest Americans several times.
"The Merv Griffin Show" lasted more than 20 years, and Griffin said his capacity to listen contributed to his success.
"If the host is sitting there thinking about his next joke, he isn't listening," Griffin said in a recent interview.
But his biggest break financially came from inventing and producing "Jeopardy" in the 1960s and "Wheel of Fortune" in the 1970s.
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"My father was a visionary," Griffin's son, Tony Griffin, said in a statement issued Sunday. "He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized."
When Griffin entered a hospital a month ago, he was working on the first week of production of a new syndicated game show, "Merv Griffin's Crosswords," his son said.
Griffin was also a longtime friend of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy.
"This is heartbreaking, not just for those of us who loved Merv personally, but for everyone around the world who has known Merv through his music, his television shows and his business," Nancy Reagan said in a statement.
"Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak said he had lost "a dear friend."
"He meant so much to my life, and it's hard to imagine it without him," Sajak said.
Griffin started putting the proceeds from selling "Jeopardy" and "Wheel" in treasury bonds, stocks and other investments but went into real estate and other ventures because "I was never so bored in my life."
In recent years, Griffin also rated frequent mentions in the sports pages as a successful racehorse owner.
In 1948, Freddy Martin hired Griffin to join his band at Los Angeles' Coconut Grove at $150 a week. Warner Bros. offered a contract, but after playing several small roles, he asked out of his contract.
In 1954, Griffin went to New York where he appeared on TV and radio.. His glibness led to stints as substitute for Jack Paar on "Tonight."
Westinghouse Broadcasting introduced "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1965 on syndicated TV. Griffin never underestimated the intelligence of his audience, offering such figures as philosopher Bertrand Russell an cellist Pablo Casals as well as movie stars and entertainers.
A lifelong crossword puzzle fan, Griffin devised a game show, "Word for Word," in 1963. It faded after one season, then his wife, Julann, suggested a show in which contestants were given the answer, and they had to come up with the question.
"Jeopardy" started in 1964 and "Wheel of Fortune" was begun in 1975.
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. was born in San Mateo, south of San Francisco on July 6, 1925, the son of a stockbroker.
He and Julann Elizabeth Wright were married in 1958, and their son, Anthony, was born the following year. They divorced in 1973 because of "irreconcilable differences." He never remarried.
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In 2000, Merv Griffin gave his $10 million inn and dude ranch in Wickenburg to Childhelp USA.
The charity planned to turn it into Childhelp's Merv Griffin Village, a haven for abused children where they would get intensive, round-the-clock treatment for trauma associated with abuse, neglect, sexual molestation and abandonment.
Griffin had bought the Wickenburg Inn and Dude Ranch in 1995, just north of the small town northwest of Phoenix once known as the "Dude Ranch Capital of the West."
