George Alexander Trebek OC (/trəˈbɛk/; born July 22, 1940) is a Canadian-American television personality. He has been the host of the syndicated game show Jeopardy! since it was revived in 1984, and 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. Trebek is contracted to host Jeopardy! until 2022. On March 6, 2019, he announced that he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Trebek has made appearances in numerous television series, usually portraying himself. A native of Canada, he became a naturalized United States citizen in 1998.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. 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, Trebek regrew the mustache for the 31st season of Jeopardy! – only to shave it off again a month into the season. 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.
Trebek owned and managed a 700-acre (2.8 km2) ranch near Paso Robles in Creston, California, known as Creston Farms, where he bred and trained thoroughbred race horses. Trebek's colt, Reba's Gold, is the stakes-winning son of Slew o' Gold. 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 and underwent surgery to remove blood clots from his brain the following day. Trebek required a short medical leave and returned to regular hosting duty in mid-January 2018. In 2018, while being interviewed by Harvey Levin on Fox News, Trebek floated the idea of retirement, saying the odds of him leaving Jeopardy in 2020 were 50/50 "and a little less".
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, Trebek noted that his prognosis was poor but that he would aggressively fight the cancer in hopes of beating the odds and would continue hosting Jeopardy! for as long as he was able, joking that his contract obligated him to do so for three more years regardless of health.
