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06 - Johnny Gilbert

John L. "Johnny" Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is a television announcer most famous to game show fans for being the announcer of Jeopardy! since its second pilot in 1984 (also doing the brief 1990 Super Jeopardy! run). Still, he has several connections to Wheel of Fortune.

Early Career[]

Johnny hosted several game shows, including Music Bingo (1958-60), Words and Music (beginning in 1960), Fast Draw (1968), Beat the Odds (1968-69), and the Los Angeles Dialing for Dollars (circa 1970-74). He also hosted a local talk/variety show, The Johnny Gilbert Show, from 1965-68; its replacement on the schedule was the first talk show hosted by Phil Donahue.

One of Gilbert's first announcing jobs was the original (1961-62) version of Camouflage, hosted by Don Morrow; Johnny filled-in at least once, on January 8, 1962. Outside of Jeopardy!, he may be most famous as the announcer of the original Bill Cullen version of The Price Is Right for its ABC run (1963-65), filling in for Bill at least once. He also announced on Barry & Enright's The Joker's Wild (1972-75/1977-86) and Tic-Tac-Dough (1978-86), often filling in for Charlie O'Donnell, Jay Stewart, or Johnny Jacobs.

Later Career[]

Other shows that Johnny announced include Make Me Laugh (1979-80), Chain Reaction (1980), Dream House (1983-84), Go (1983-84), The $25,000/$100,000 Pyramid (1980s), The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime (1986-87), Blackout (1988), and Supermarket Sweep (1990-95/2000). He also filled announcing duties on Super Jeopardy! (1990).

Trivia[]

  • He contributed to the Hasbro Interactive Jeopardy! video games by reading the clues, instead of Alex Trebek.

External link[]

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