Iconic Game Show Host Instrumental to Elvis’ Career Dead at 91

Wink Martindale — best known as the host of multiple well-known game shows in the 1950s and ’70s — has died at age 91, his family confirmed to Deadline on Tuesday, April 15.

Though the family did not provide a cause of death, they noted that the beloved game show host was “surrounded by family and his beloved wife of 49 years, Sandra Martindale.”

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Before Alex Trebek, before Pat Sajack, there was Wink (real name: Winston) who was contemporaries with other game show greats, like Family Feud‘s Richard Dawson, The Newlywed Game‘s Bob Eubanks, and Password‘s Allen Ludden (who went on to marry Betty White, before his death in 1981).

It was Wink who helmed the 1950s game show Tic-Tac-Dough before going on to ’70s game show staples like High Rollers and Gambit.

Prior to finding fame as a game show host, Wink was a popular radio personality — one whose early support for Elvis Presley led to a radio station visit from the King of Rock n’ Roll himself.

As his family tells the story, Wink was a DJ in Memphis in the early ’50s when his fellow disc jokey debuted Presley’s first single, “That’s All Right.” It was Wink, his family said, who called up Elvis’ mother, Gladys Presley, to ask if her son would be willing to come down to the station for an interview — the pop star’s first one ever.

“Elvis soon arrived at WHBQ for his first interview, and music was changed forever,” the Martindale family told Deadline.

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