Fleming introduces a 1974 episode of
Jeopardy!
Art Fleming (May 1 1924 - April
25 1995) was the original host of the TV game show
Jeopardy!
Biography
Early life
Fleming was born Arthur Fleming Fazzin in New York City. His parents,
William and Marie Fazzin, had emigrated to the United States from Austria. They were a popular dance team in
Europe and had brought their show to the U.S. Fleming (who stood 6 foot, 4 inches tall and
weighed 220 pounds) was a varsity letterman football player at James Monroe
High School in New York. He later attended Colgate and Cornell universities, starring on the
football and water polo teams at both colleges.
Fleming was a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Navy for three and a half years as the pilot of a
patrol bomber in the Atlantic.
Career
After leaving the Navy, Fleming became an announcer at a radio station in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It was here that he first shortened his name to "Art Fleming." His radio career would
later take him to Akron, Ohio, and back home to
New York. He was the first announcer to deliver the popular slogan "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette
should" for Winston cigarettes.
From 1979 to 1992, Fleming hosted a daily radio talk show on KMOX in St.
Louis. On Sunday evenings, he occasionally co-hosted Trivia Spectacular with David Strauss. He also hosted the
syndicated radio program When Radio Was.
Fleming's acting career began at age four, when he starred in a Broadway play. His
first television role was as a stunt double for
Ralph Bellamy in the detective series Man Against
Crime. He would later star in The Flying Tigers, The Californians, and International Detective.
Fleming also appeared in many television commercials. He was first spotted
by legendary creator of TV shows Merv Griffin on a commercial for Trans World Airlines. Griffin thought Fleming was "authoritative, yet warm and interesting," and
Fleming was invited to audition for the role of host in a new quiz show Griffin was developing. Fleming (an actor with no prior
TV quiz show experience) was initially skeptical, but his agent encouraged him to "act like a game show host" at his audition and
Fleming ultimately won the job. The show was Jeopardy!, which Fleming hosted from
1964 to 1975 and again from October
2,1978, to March 2,1979. As
the first host of "the world's greatest quiz show," Fleming earned two Emmy Award
nominations. While he was host of Jeopardy!, Fleming never missed a taping.
Because he hosted a quiz show, Fleming earned a reputation as being a storehouse of trivia. While appearing as a guest star on
Hollywood Squares (another popular NBC game show in the 1960s and 1970s),
Fleming was once selected as the "secret square." His question was, "In 1938, who won the Wimbledon women's tennis championship?"
Fleming picked Helen Wills Moody, one of the three choices read to him. The female contestant (who had selected Fleming) turned
to Hollywood Squares MC Peter Marshall and said, "Art Fleming would never lie! I agree!" He was right, and the contestant
won $11,000. Fleming later said he didn't know a thing about tennis and had guessed the answer. He hoped the contestant would
disagree, thinking he was wrong.
Throughout his career, Fleming starred in 5000 episodes of television programs and 48
motion pictures. After Jeopardy! was cancelled in 1975,
Fleming returned to acting. He played the role of W. Averell Harriman in the movie
MacArthur and also appeared on episodes of Starsky and Hutch, Kingston: Confidential,
and the TV miniseries The
Moneychangers.
He also hosted a radio version of College Bowl for CBS. Fleming reprised his role as host of Jeopardy! in the movie Airplane II and in "Weird Al"
Yankovic's music video "I Lost On Jeopardy". Fleming was also often called
upon to host mock versions of Jeopardy! at trade shows and conventions.
Personal life
In 1992, Fleming retired and moved with his wife to Crystal River,
Florida. He remained active in charity work, hosting
fundraising videos for the Citrus County
(Florida) United Way and becoming involved with
the Citrus Abuse Shelter Association (where his wife served as director).
Fleming died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Crystal River on April 25 1995, six days shy of his 71st birthday.
External links
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