Gene Rayburn

Gene Rayburn was born on December 22, 1917, in Christopher, Illinois. After his father died at a very young age, his mother moved to Chicago and married Milan Rubessa, and Gene adopted his stepfather's name. As Gene Rubessa, he acted in high school plays and hoped to follow an acting career.

He moved to New York City in the 1930s where he was a page for NBC, later working as an usher for the NBC symphony orchestra. Before World War Two, he went to announcers school and worked with various radio personalities around New York City.

At age 18, Rayburn moved to New York City, New York, in 1936, to pursue a career as a radio disc jockey and in Broadcasting.

He married Helen Tricknor, in 1940, with whom he had one child, Lynn, in 1942. Soon afterwards, he was called to Military Service and joined the U. S. Air Corps. After the war, Gene worked on the "Rayburn and Finch Show" and, later, the "Gene Rayburn Show" in the early fifties. During the 50s, Rayburn was instrumental in highlighting corruption on radio, by playing an older song so many times that it became a hit. This was alleged to have proved that record promoters could pay DJs to play records on stations for bribes, making the songs very popular, albeit for a price.

Has a daughter, Lynne Rayburn (born October 5, 1942).

Made his very first appearance on Kukla, Fran and Ollie (1947).

Prior to becoming a game show host, he was a frequent light comedy star performer with the Bucks County Playhouse during the late 1950s and early 1960s. His vehicles included "The Love of Four Colonels" (1957), "Who Was That Lady I Saw You With?" (1959), "Come Blow Your Horn" (1960) and "Under the Yum Yum Tree" (1962).

Met Julie London when she was a guest on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1951), years later, London would reunite with Rayburn on Match Game (1973).

Before he was a successful game show host, he used to host Today (1952) with Dave Garroway, who in turn was replaced by him, every once in a while.

His breakthrough came in the mid-50s as the announcer on The Tonight Show (1953), with Steve Allen.

Rayburn and Allen were associated on The Tonight Show (1953) Show for three years and Rayburn became a household name for many years after that.

In 1955, he hosted his first game show called The Sky's the Limit (1954).

Filled in for Bud Collyer for one episode of To Tell the Truth (1956).

Succeeded Dick Van Dyke as Albert Peterson in the Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie" when Van Dyke departed in April of 1961.

Subsequent game shows included The Match Game (1962), Make the Connection (1955), Musical Chairs (1955), Play Your Hunch (1958), Tic Tac Dough (1956) and Dough Re Mi (1960). He always flew by jet from his home in Massachusetts to host his various shows. Rayburn was also a Broadway performer, and appeared in plays such as. Charles Nelson Reilly was his understudy.

Even after most game shows moved production to Los Angeles in the 1970s, Rayburn never relocated to California, staying on the East Coast and commuting to Hollywood every 2 weeks to tape 2 weeks worth of episodes over a weekend (10 CBS daytime episodes, 2 nighttime syndication episodes).

Moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1972, and lived there for nearly 28 years.

Best remembered by the public as the host of Match Game (1973).

Rayburn's classic microphone got a lot of abuse from Gene using it as a sword, or a javelin. For a publicity shot, he put the mike in his teeth as if it was a long stemmed rose. Once during Match Game PM (1975), the cord completely came off of it, and they had to cut to commercial to give Gene a new mike. Once on Match Game (1973), instead of his usual mike, someone placed an old style radio mike on the desk. Richard Dawson explained that his usual mike was not working, and he had to use that old one. Gene was very amused and tried to pick it up. It was obviously very heavy, as he was hunched over trying to carry it! Meanwhile, Richard reached under the desk and revealed Gene's usual microphone, much to Gene's relief.

His show's Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour (1983)'s musical cues, was later recycled over to The Price Is Right (1972), usually for use with cars and showcases, which still uses to this day. The show was formerly hosted by fellow game show host Bob Barker, before Drew Carey, took over.

Was fired from hosting the revival of Break the Bank (1985), after 15 weeks, when producer Richard S. Kline thought Rayburn was at fault for the show's low ratings. He was replaced by Joe Farago.

Was Jonathan M. Goodson's and Chester Feldman's second choice to host the revamp version of Match Game (1990), replacing an ailing Bert Convy, but they were not interested in hiring him back, so they replaced him with comedian Ross Shafer.

Fellow game show host Wink Martindale had a long-standing friendly feud with him, along with Chuck Woolery. Upon Rayburn's death in 1999, Martindale revealed that Rayburn and Woolery had conjured up his rather juvenile nickname of "Stink Fartindale," and would always fondly remember their times together.