Wink Martindale, Beloved TV Game Show Host, Dies at 91

Wink Martindale, a TV game show icon who hosted “Tic-Tac-Dough,” “High Rollers” and “Gambit,” died on Tuesday at the age of 91.

Brian Mayes of Nashville Publicity Group said in a press release that Martindale died at his home in Rancho Mirage, where he was “surrounded by family and his beloved wife of 49 years, Sandra Martindale.”

The first TV show he hosted was “Mars Patrol” at WHBQ-TV in Memphis in 1955, introducing segments from “Flash Gordon” serials.

He went on to host NBC’s “What’s This Song?” from 1964 to 1965, followed by “Words and Music” and “Gambit” at CBS, before landing his most popular series, “Tic-Tac-Dough.” Among the many other shows he hosted were “Headline Chasers,” “High Rollers,” “The Last Word,” “The Great Getaway Game,” “Trivial Pursuit,” “Debt,” and “Instant Recall.

In 2006, he also appeared in commercials for Orbitz travel site and later helped promote KFC with Rob Lowe in 2017.

Martindale, who was born in Jackson, Tennessee on December 4, 1933, started his career as a disc jockey in Jackson at the age of 17. He was at Memphis station WHBQ on July 10, 1954, when fellow DJ Dewey Phillips played Elvis Presley’s first record, “That’s All Right,” on the radio for the very first time. After Phillips was asked to play the record over and over, a quick-thinking Martindale invited Presley to come down to the station for his first interview.

He also found gold record success as a recording artist, with his spoken-word song “Deck of Cards” in 1959. That same year, he became the morning DJ at KHJ in Los Angeles,, moving a year later to the morning show at KRLA and then to KFWB in 1962. He also worked at LA stations KGIL-AM, KABC, and KMPC.

His additional radio credits include Hit Parade Radio and the syndicated programs “Music of Your Life,” “100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time,” “The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and recent recurring appearances on “The Howard Stern Show.”

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006. Last year, he was honored with a Beale Street Note on Memphis, Tennessee’s Beale Street Walk of Fame. He was also one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame.

Martindale is survived by his wife Sandra, sister Geraldine, and his daughters Lisa, Lyn and Laura as well as several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

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