Los Angeles: Merv Griffin, the big band-era singer turned impresario who turned the American television game shows Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune into a multimillion-dollar empire, has died. He was 82.
Griffin died on Sunday of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment.
From his beginning as a $100-a-week San Francisco radio singer, Griffin moved on to be a sometime film actor in films and a TV game and talk show host, and he made Forbes' list of richest Americans several times.
His The Merv Griffin Show lasted more than 20 years, and Griffin said his capacity to listen contributed to his success.
''If the host is sitting there thinking about his next joke, he isn't listening,'' Griffin said in a recent interview.
But his biggest break financially came from inventing and producing the television quiz shows Jeopardy in the 1960s and Wheel of Fortune in the 1970s. After they had become the hottest game shows on television, Griffin sold the rights to Coca Cola's Columbia Pictures Television Unit for $250 million in 1986, retaining a share of the profits.
He also continued to receive royalties for the popular 'Jeopardy! theme song, which he wrote.
''My father was a visionary,'' Griffin's son, Tony Griffin, said in a statement issued on Sunday. ''He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalised.''
Griffin started putting the proceeds from selling Jeopardy and Wheel in treasury bonds, stocks and other investments, but went into real estate and other ventures because ''I was never so bored in my life.''
''I said 'I'm not going to sit around and clip coupons for the rest of my life,''' he recalled in 1989. ''That's when Barron Hilton said 'Merv, do you want to buy the Beverly Hilton?' I couldn't believe it.''
Griffin bought the slightly passe hotel for $100.2 million and completely refurbished it for $25 million. Then he made a move for control of Resorts International, which operated hotels and casinos from Atlantic City to the Caribbean.
That touched off a feud with real estate tycoon Donald Trump. Griffin eventually acquired Resorts for $240 million, even though Trump had held 80 percent of the voting stock.
''I love the gamesmanship,'' he told Life magazine in 1988. ''This may sound strange, but it parallels the game shows I've been involved in.''
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A lifelong crossword puzzle fan, Griffin devised a game show, Word for Word, in 1963. It faded after one season, then his wife, Julann, suggested another show.
''Julann's idea was a twist on the usual question-answer format of the quiz shows of the Fifties,'' he wrote in his autobiography Merv. ''Her idea was to give the contestants the answer, and they had to come up with the appropriate question.''
Jeopardy started in 1964 and the more conventional game show Wheel of Fortune started in 1975.
''The loss of a dear friend has made it difficult to focus on Merv's enormous contribution to the world of entertainment,'' said Pat Sajak, host of ''Wheel of Fortune.''
''That will come in time; for now, like his family and so many of his close friends, I'm dealing with deep sadness and the realization that I will never hear that wonderful laugh of his again.''
Griffin first found fame soon after Freddy Martin hired him to join his band in 1948. With Griffin doing the singing, the band had a smash hit with I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts, a 1949 novelty song sung in a cockney accent.
Doris Day and her producer husband, Marty Melcher, saw the band in Las Vegas and recommended Griffin to Warner Bros., which offered a contract. But after some film roles, he asked out of his contract.
In 1954, Griffin went to New York, where he had a few TV game show hosting jobs. His glibness led to stints as substitute for Jack Paar on Tonight.
When Paar retired in 1962, Griffin was considered a prime candidate to replace him. Johnny Carson was chosen instead. NBC gave Griffin a daytime version of ''Tonight,'' but he was canceled for being ''too sophisticated'' for the housewife audience.
Westinghouse Broadcasting introduced The Merv Griffin Show in 1965 on syndicated TV. Griffin never underestimated the intelligence of his audience, offering such figures as philosopher Bertrand Russell, cellist Pablo Casals and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-philosopher-historians Will and Ariel Durant as well as movie stars and entertainers.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled Sunday that his very first US talk show appearance was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1974.
''We became good friends, and Merv has always been a big part of my success,'' the former actor and bodybuilding champion said.
Schwarzenegger said Griffin ''excelled at whatever he put his mind to, will remain a legend in the hearts and minds of Californians forever.''
Griffin was also a longtime friend of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy.
''This is heartbreaking, not just for those of us who loved Merv personally, but for everyone around the world who has known Merv through his music, his television shows and his business,'' Nancy Reagan said in a statement. ''Ronnie and I knew Merv for more years than I can even remember, more than 50 I'm sure.''
Besides his son, Griffin is survived by his daughter-in-law, Tricia, and two grandchildren.
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