Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show. He also created the internationally popular game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune through his television production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.
He was born Mervyn Edward Griffin, Jr. in San Mateo, California, where his father was a stockbroker. He became interested in music as a young boy, singing in his church choir and performing as its organist when he was in his teens, in order to earn extra money. He graduated from San Mateo High School in 1942 and was declared ineligible for military service during World War II because of a heart murmur. At the age of 19, he became a singer on radio, appearing on "San Francisco Sketchbook," a nationally syndicated program based at radio station KFRC.
Bandleader Freddy Martin heard him on the radio show and asked him to tour with his orchestra, which he did for four years. By 1945 he had earned enough money to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced "Songs by Merv Griffin" (1946), the first American album ever recorded on magnetic tape. He became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences, and his fame soared among the general public with his 1950 hit "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts." The song reached the number one spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies. This was followed by "Wilhelmina" and "Never Been Kissed".
Subsequently drafted for military service at the beginning of the Korean War, he was declared too old (the draft age limit was 26 and he had just turned 27). He was discovered by singer Doris Day at one of his nightclub performances and she arranged for a screen test at Warner Brothers Studio for a role in the 1953 musical film "By the Light of the Silvery Moon." He failed to get the part, but the screen test led to supporting roles in other musical films such as "So This Is Love" (1953). The film caused a minor controversy when he shared an open-mouthed kiss with actress Kathryn Grayson, a first in Hollywood film history since the introduction of the Production Code in 1934.
He went on to appear in more pictures, but soon became disillusioned with movie making. He bought his contract back from Warner Brothers and decided to focus on a new medium, television. From 1958 to 1962 he hosted a television game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman called "Play Your Hunch." He also hosted a prime time game show for ABC called "Keep Talking." Additionally, he also substituted for a week for the vacationing Bill Cullen on television's "The Price Is Right," and also for Bud Collyer on "To Tell the Truth." He was rewarded with his own live daytime talk show on NBC in 1962, which proved not to be successful, and was cancelled in 1963.
In 1965 he launched a syndicated talk show for Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting), "The Merv Griffin Show," that aired in a variety of time slots throughout North America; many stations ran it in the daytime, others aired it in prime-time and a few broadcast it opposite Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show." His sidekick was the veteran British character actor Arthur Treacher, who had been his mentor. When Treacher left the show in 1970, he would do the announcing himself, and walk on stage with the phrase, "And now..., here I come!" He was known for booking controversial guests but was also widely criticized for it.
A student of Transcendental Meditation, he dedicated two shows to the topic and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one in 1975, the other in 1977. The show would win eleven Emmy Awards during its 21-year run. In 1969 CBS gave him a late-night television show opposite "The Tonight Show," which was unsuccessful. Sensing that his time at CBS was ending, and tired of the restrictions imposed by the network, he secretly signed a contract with rival company Metromedia, which would give him a syndicated daytime talk show deal as soon as CBS cancelled his show. Within a few months he was fired by CBS and his new show began the following Monday and ran until the mid-1980s.
He retired in 1986 had become one of the world's wealthiest entertainers, amassing media outlets, hotels, and casinos with a net worth widely estimated in 2003 at over a billion dollars. In 1990 he had an ambitious but unsuccessful attempt at adapting the venerable board game "Monopoly" into a game show of the same name. In 1996 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer which was successfully treated. He returned to singing in March 2001 with the release of the album "It's Like a Dream." On May 14, 2003 he was honoured with the Broadcast Music, Incorporated (BMI) President's Award at its annual Film and Television Awards ceremony, for having created some of America's best-known game show melodies.
His prostate cancer returned in 2007 and his health deteriorated in August of that year, and he died at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television.
(Edited from bio by William Bjornstad)