Alex Trebek, the much-loved of Jeopardy! for the last several decades, has died aged 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

In a statement issued out by Jeopardy! (via Twitter), Trebek “passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends.”

Born in Ontario, Canada, on July 22nd 1940, Trebek graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in philosophy but was quickly drawn to on-camera work early into his post-graduate career.

After graduating in 1961, Trebek began working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Ottawa. While he originally had an eye on broadcast journalism, Trebek worked several years as an announcer for a wide range of news and sporting events for the CBC.

1963 was when Trebek’s TV career began as he started hosting a Canadian music show called Music Hop and he spent most of the next decade honing his chops as a TV show host, moving to Los Angeles in 1973 to further his career.

While Alex Trebek was an experienced host at this point, it wasn’t until he signed on to host the daily syndicated revival of Jeopardy! in 1984 that he found the role everyone will quickly associate him with for the rest of his life.

Jeopardy! started an almost-unparalleled TV hosting run for Trebek, who received a lifetime achievement award at the Daytime Emmy Awards in 2011 and was awarded the Guinness World Record for most episodes of a game show hosted in 2014, with 6,829 at the time.

In 2019, Trebek announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer but intended to fight the disease while still hosting Jeopardy! as long as he still could, even joking he had no choice but to beat the cancer as he is under contract to host the show through to 2022.

Alex Trebek is survived by his wife Jean and his two children, Matthew and Emily. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends during this difficult time.

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