Merv Griffin

Graduated from San Mateo High School in San Mateo, California, in 1943.

Born in San Mateo, California, he took to the piano at age 4 and received lessons at a music conservatory in nearby San Francisco. In 1945, he heard about an audition for a piano player at KFRC radio but found out that they needed a singer instead and applied for that job. He got it and within a few days was hosting his own 15-minute radio show five days a week.

He became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences and his fame soared among the general public when he struck gold in 1950 with "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts", which reached the number one spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies. Continuing to record hits, including "Wilhelmina" and "Never Been Kissed", Griffin made a foray into motion pictures after Doris Day saw his nightclub performance and arranged a screen test for him at Warner Bros. Studios. While under contract at Warner Bros.

As a regular performer on The Arthur Murray Party (1950), The Tonight Show Starring Jack Parr (1957) and others, he was offered the opportunity to host his own television series, Play Your Hunch (1958).

While Carson's style was indebted to his long apprenticeship in Los Angeles in the 1950s, Griffin was based in New York, where he socialized with New York's theater and café crowds.

, he appeared in a number of hit movies, including So This Is Love (1953) with Kathryn Grayson and The Boy from Oklahoma (1954) with Will Rogers Jr.. , and Lon Chaney Jr. . Television then discovered him.

When Phantom of the Rue Morgue, a 1954 3-D horror movie in which he had a minor role, bombed, Griffin decided he wanted out of his contract with Warner Brothers, under which he was being paid the relatively paltry sum of $250 a week. Studio head Jack Warner agreed to Merv's request, but demanded he pay $5,000 to be released by the studio. Griffin immediately wrote a check and handed it to Warner, but was secretly relieved when Warner tore up the check. "Let's face it," he later told friends, "I don't have $5,000 in the bank!".

He became a substitute host for Jack Paar on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Parr (1957) and scored some of the highest ratings in the show's history.

Griffin's approach to television talk was influenced by two New York shows, David Susskind's The David Susskind Show (1958) and Mike Wallace's Probe and Night Beat (1956), and like Susskind and Wallace, he openly embraced controversial subjects.

Did the actual voice recording for "Once Upon A Time" (Prince Phillip) in Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).

Shared the same birthday as Della Reese. He met her, when he was working in New York City doing a radio show. Basically, Helen Basiley wrote a song where Griffin began singing the weather report to this groove as did Reese herself, and was hired to co-host alongside him on his talk show in the 1960s.

Hit #101 on the Billboard 'Bubbling Under the Hot 100' Chart in 1961 with "Banned in Boston" (Carlton 540).

Merv Griffin was a singer and band leader, movie actor, television personality and media mogul who in his time hosting The Merv Griffin Show (1962) was second in fame and influence as a talk show host only to Johnny Carson.

But it was in 1962 that his career took its most dramatic turn.

As a result, NBC gave him his own hour-long daytime talk show program, The Merv Griffin Show (1962).

Griffin's first daytime talk show began on the same day Carson first hosted The Tonight Show (1962).

It was during this period that he conceived the idea for what was to become one of the most successful game shows in television history, Jeopardy! (1964).

An avid fan of puzzles since childhood, Griffin first produced a successful game show in 1964, Jeopardy! (1964) for NBC.

In 1965, Griffin was criticized as a "traitor" when he aired a special from London in which Nobel Prize-winning philosopher Bertrand Russell denounced the Vietnam War. Despite his success on daytime television, it was late night that was The Holy Grail for talk show hosts.

"In 1965, I'm called a traitor by the press for presenting Bertrand Russell, and, four years later, we are hard-pressed to find anybody to speak in favor of the Vietnam War".

Griffin's name and talk show career will always be seen in the light of that of Johnny Carson, the "King of late night TV", with whom Griffin directly competed on CBS from 1969 to 1972.

In 1969, CBS hired Griffin to directly compete with Carson in the 11:30 PM to 1:00 AM time slot that had proven a grave yard for other personalities. Not one to shy away from controversy, Griffin began to be harassed by CBS censors who objected to the antiwar statements of his guests and ordered him to feature pro-war guests for balance. "The irony of the situation wasn't wasted on me", Griffin recalls in his autobiography.

In March 1970, CBS censors pixilated antiwar activist Abbie Hoffman because he was wearing a shirt that resembled an American flag. The resulting blurred image meant that Hoffman's voice emanated from a "jumble of lines". CBS also pressured Griffin into sacking his long-term sidekick Arthur Treacher, who had been his television mentor, because he was too old. The censorship did not boost the ratings for Griffin, who was facing stiff competition from the genial Carson, who himself was criticized during the era for shying away from controversial subjects.

Other Griffin successes in the game show field included "One in a Million" and Joe Garagiola's Memory Game (1971), both airing on ABC, Let's Play Post Office on NBC, and Reach for the Stars (1967).

In 1972, a fed-up Griffin negotiated a syndication deal with Metromedia to move his talk show back to the daytime, and in the event he was terminated by CBS. The deal was signed in secret as a penalty clause in his CBS contract gave him $1 million in the event of his being fired. Later that year, CBS terminated Griffin's late-night talk show and Griffin immediately made the transition to Metromedia's syndicated network. While Griffin may have been a washout in late night television (and he had LOTS of company - EVERYONE who went up against Carson lost the ratings race, and Johnny always came out the victor), Griffin's impact on daytime was immense, specifically through his production of game shows.

Arnold Schwarzenegger made his talk show debut in the United States on Merv's talk show in 1974.

When Griffin rented a Bevery Hills mansion in 1975, he was surprised when busloads of tourists stopped in front of the house his first morning there - he assumed tour guides had already discovered he was the new tenant. He later found out that he had unknowingly rented the home in which Lana Turner's mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato had been murdered in 1958.

Griffin was best known for creating the two most popular game shows in television syndication history, Wheel of Fortune (1983) and Jeopardy! (1984), which are watched by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. In the business world, he was identified as the visionary chairman of The Griffin Group. Born in the San Francisco, California suburb of San Mateo, Griffin "came up through the ranks" in the classic sense, entering talent contests, writing songs, singing on local radio station KFRC-San Francisco, and later touring with Freddy Martin Orchestra.

After 13 seasons as a daytime talk show host, Griffin retired from his talk show in 1986 to devote himself to producing his highly profitable game shows.

In 1986, Griffin sold his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to Coca-Cola's Columbia Pictures Television unit for $250 million as well as a continuing share of the profits of the shows. At that time, the transaction represented the largest acquisition of an entertainment company owned by a single individual. Subsequently, Sony Pictures Entertainment purchased Columbia and he retains the title of executive producer of both "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" (for which he still creates puzzles and questions.

In the Seinfeld (1989) episode Seinfeld: The Merv Griffin Show (1997), Kramer rescues Griffin's discarded set from a dumpster, and stages his own talk show in his apartment.

Although the divorced father of one son, Tony, and a constant companion to actress Eva Gabor over the years, it was generally known in the Hollywood circle that Griffin was gay. In 1991, the 65-year-old Griffin faced a multimillion-dollar palimony suit from former Griffin bodyguard and horse trainer Brent Plott, a 37-year-old who maintained he was Griffin's business consultant and lover and was entitled to a portion of Griffin's amassed fortune. That same year, Deney Terrio, host of "Dance Fever", filed an $11.3 sexual harassment lawsuit against Griffin. Both cases were thrown out.

Winner of 15 Emmy Awards, Griffin was presented an Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show Emmy for 1993-1994 as executive producer of Jeopardy! (1984) He had also been the recipient of the coveted Scopus Award from the American Friends of Hebrew University, "The Duke Award" presented by the John Wayne Cancer Institute, and he had been honored by the American Ireland Fund and the SHARE organization. He was Lifetime Honorary Festival Chairman of La Quinta Arts Festival and recently donated his Wickenburg Inn and Dude Ranch to Childhelp USA.

He was honored with the prestigious 1994 Broadcasting and Cable "Hall of Fame" Award, alongside such figures as Diane Sawyer and Dan Rather.

In January 1998, Griffin opened The Coconut Club, one of the country's hottest swing/dance clubs, at his Beverly Hilton Hotel. This weekend venue, fashioned after Hollywood's famed Coconut Grove (where Griffin headlined as a boy singer with The Freddy Martin Orchestra) features live Big Bands, Swing Orchestras, and Rock Bands amidst a glamorous nightclub setting.

) He served as Executive Producer of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" (2000). After his retirement from daytime chat, Merv became a real estate baron, acquiring the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, which is now the venue of choice for virtually all of the Tinseltown's most high profile events such as The Golden Globe Awards, The Soap Opera Digest Awards, and The American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Awards. He also owns the Hilton Scottsdale Resort and Villas in Arizona, and St.

In March 2001, the Gold Label released his new CD, "It's Like a Dream", for which he composed the title song. Among his private passions are his family, son Tony Griffin, daughter-in-law Tricia, and grandchildren Farah and Donovan Mervyn, his long-haired sharpei dog Charlie Chan, his La Quinta ranch near Carmel, where he raises thoroughbred racing horses, and his 135 foot, four-story high ocean going yacht, Griff.

Jeopardy! (2002) remains the second highest rated game show in television syndication while Wheel of Fortune (1983) continues to be the longest running game show to hold the number one spot in television syndication history.

His colt Stevie Wonderboy, named after Stevie Wonder, won the 2005 Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

(July 18, 2007) Hospitalized for a recurrence of his prostate cancer.

Clerans Manor, an 18th century estate once owned by director John Huston which is located near Galway, the premier resort destination in Ireland.