BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Most people know Alex Trebek for the television show Jeopardy!. However, the founding host of the show was Colgate University and Cornell University water polo player Art Fleming (born Arthur Fleming Fazzin).
Fleming was born in New York City in 1924 to parents William and Marie Fazzin who immigrated to the United States from Austria. They were a popular dance team in Europe and brought their show to America. Their son Art was a varsity letterman football player at James Monroe High School in New York City, standing six feet and four inches. He later attended Colgate University and Cornell University starring on the football and water polo teams at both colleges. Fleming was a World War II veteran who served in the United States Naval Academy for three and a half years as the pilot of a patrol bomber in the Atlantic Ocean.
After leaving the Navy, Fleming became an announcer at a radio station in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Here, he first shortened his name to “Art Fleming”. His radio career later took him to Akron, Ohio, and back home to New York. He was the first announcer to deliver the slogan “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should” for Winston cigarettes.
Fleming’s acting career began at age four, when he starred in a Broadway play. His first television role was as a stunt double for Ralph Bellamy in the detective series Man Against Crime. In 1959 he starred as detective Ken Franklin in the ABC TV series International Detective, credited as Arthur Fleming. He also played attorney Jeremy Pitt in The Californians, an NBC Western set in San Francisco during the gold rush of the 1850s. Fleming also appeared in many television commercials. He was first spotted by Merv Griffin on a commercial for Trans World Airlines. Griffin thought Fleming was “authoritative, yet warm and interesting”, and Fleming was invited to audition for the role of host for a quiz show Griffin was developing. Fleming (an actor with no prior TV quiz show experience) was initially skeptical, but his agent encouraged him to “act like a game show host” at his audition, and Fleming ultimately won the job. The show was Jeopardy!, which Fleming hosted from March 30, 1964, to January 3, 1975, and again from October 2, 1978, to March 2, 1979. Although often described as the “host” of the program, announcer Don Pardo’s introduction of him announced, “and here’s the star of Jeopardy!, Art Fleming.” As “the world’s greatest quiz show’s” first host, Fleming earned two Emmy Award nominations. While he was host of Jeopardy!, Fleming never missed a taping.
Because he hosted a quiz show, and in part because he was an avid reader with multiple college degrees, Fleming earned a reputation as being a storehouse of trivia. While appearing as a guest star on Hollywood Squares (another NBC game show in the 1960s and 1970s), Fleming was once selected as the “secret square”. His question was, “In 1938, who won the Wimbledon women’s tennis championship?” Fleming picked Helen Wills Moody, one of the three choices read to him. The female contestant (who had selected Fleming) turned to Hollywood Squares MC Peter Marshall, saying, “Art Fleming would never lie! I agree!” He was right, and the contestant won $11,000. Fleming later said he did not know a thing about tennis and had guessed the answer. He hoped the contestant would disagree, thinking he was wrong.
Throughout his career, Fleming starred in about 5,000 episodes of television programs and 48 motion pictures. After Jeopardy!’s first cancellation in 1975, Fleming returned to acting. In 1977 he played the role of W. Averell Harriman in the movie MacArthur starring Gregory Peck, and appeared in the comedy film American Raspberry, and also appeared in episodes of Starsky and Hutch, Kingston: Confidential, and the 1976 TV miniseries The Moneychangers.
Fleming also hosted a radio version of College Bowl for CBS Radio from 1979 to 1982. He hosted the NBC radio weekend magazine Monitor during 1972. Fleming reprised his role as host of Jeopardy! in the 1982 movie Airplane II: The Sequel and in “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music video “I Lost on Jeopardy”. Fleming was also often called upon to host mock versions of Jeopardy! at trade shows and conventions.
Fleming was asked to reprise his role as Jeopardy! host when Merv Griffin began developing a revival of the show in 1983. He declined, later stating in 1989 that he did not like the direction the show had gone in moving the show to Hollywood (being partial to his native New York, he felt that the Hollywood setting made the less realistic). As a result, Alex Trebek (a personal friend of Fleming’s) took the position instead and has hosted the program ever since. Fleming and the staff of the modern Jeopardy! had a somewhat public feud over the nature of the show’s clues, as Fleming believed that the writers were inserting hints into the clues to make the correct question seem obvious and easy to guess.
From 1980 to 1992, Fleming hosted a daily radio talk show on KMOX in St. Louis, which continued until his retirement. On Sunday evenings, he occasionally co-hosted Trivia Spectacular with David Strauss, a St. Louis schoolteacher. He also hosted the syndicated radio program When Radio Was.
In 1992, Fleming retired and the family moved to Crystal River, Florida. He remained active in charity work: he hosted fundraising videos for the Citrus County United Way and became involved with the Citrus County Abuse Shelter Association, Inc. He also hosted a syndicated television program, called Senior America, which showcased seniors and senior activities.
Fleming died of pancreatic cancer at his home on April 25, 1995, six days before his 71st birthday. His ashes were scattered at sea.
For his service as an actor and game show host, Studio 25 of The Burbank Studios – formerly known as NBC Studios – is named in his honor.
