John Lewis Gilbert III (born July 13, 1928) is an American show business personality who has worked mainly on television game shows. Originally a nightclub singer and entertainer, he has hosted and announced a number of game shows from various eras, dating as far back as the 1950s. He is known primarily for his work as the announcer and audience host for the syndicated version of the quiz show Jeopardy! since its revival in 1984.
Early life and education
John Lewis Gilbert III[2] was born on July 13,[2] 1928)[3][4][5] in Newport News, Virginia. He began performing by singing as a boy in his hometown Lutheran Church choir.[6] Although his parents had never worked in the theatrical profession themselves, his grandmother had been a church singer.[2]
While he was still in high school, Gilbert decided to take up a professional singing career and learned from an opera teacher. He never sang opera independently, but was the regular vocalist with Shelly Harmon and His Orchestra, a group that toured the Virginia area.[2]
Career
Stage and early television career
A few years after graduating from high school, Gilbert resided in Florida for three months working as an emcee, during which he received on-the-job training and learned to walk on stage, speak in front of a public crowd, and tell jokes and stories.[2]
The Dead End Kids, a group comprising young actors such as Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Gabriel Dell, were organizing a revue. Gilbert joined the group and played throughout the southwestern United States for 16 weeks.[6] When they played in Norfolk, Virginia, Gilbert got special billing.[2]
After resigning from the service and returning to the U.S., Gilbert continued singing and hosting in clubs.[6] One day, a manager of a well-known group in Philadelphia asked Gilbert if he was interested in auditioning for television.[2] He said yes, and received his first television assignment as a singer and emcee on WDSU in New Orleans.[7]
Hosting
Gilbert went to New York City, where he quickly signed with the William Morris Agency and in 1958 received his first job on national television—as the host of a newly created game show, Music Bingo.[6] The show ran for three years, airing first on NBC and then on ABC.[2] His popularity on that show led him to record an album and several singles. Gilbert went on to emcee the local game show Words and Music on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.[2]
Gilbert was later contacted by Avco Broadcasting to host his own local talk/variety show, The Johnny Gilbert Show, which aired on WLWD-TV (now WDTN) in Dayton, Ohio, and three other Avco stations in Ohio and Indiana. The show was a 90-minute, live telecast running 5 days a week. It included celebrity guests and a 60-person studio audience. He hosted it for two years until he left Dayton on short notice for New York, where he became the host of the Metromedia-produced game show Fast Draw. His slot was then given to Phil Donahue, who at that time was a reporter in WLWD-TV's news department.[2]
In 1963, Gilbert was selected by Mark Goodson to replace Don Pardo as the announcer and audience host for the original Bill Cullen-hosted version of The Price Is Right when it moved from NBC to ABC. He hosted the show for the absent Cullen on June 19, 1964.[9] Gilbert also served as the announcer and audience host for Dinah Shore's syndicated daily talk show, which ran from 1974 to 1980.[10]
When Merv Griffin's quiz show Jeopardy! was reintroduced to television in 1984 as a daily syndicated program hosted by Alex Trebek, Trebek convinced Griffin to hire Gilbert as announcer and audience host; Trebek had met Gilbert at a dinner party in the early 1980s and was impressed with his voice.[5] Gilbert has held these two roles ever since.[11] He has become well known for opening each of the show's nightly episodes with the announcement, "This is Jeopardy!" After that opening line, he would introduce the two new challengers for the episode followed by the defending champion, stating the total winnings of the latter, before introducing the host. His additional duties have included announcing the fee plugs for the sponsors of the show (until 1996) and announcing consolation prizes offered to non-winning contestants (until 2002).[12] As audience host, Gilbert handles warm-up duties, exciting the crowd before the commencement of taping.
In 2017 Gilbert was honored by Guinness World Records for having the longest career as a game show announcer for a single show, after 32 years with Jeopardy![13] This was commemorated with a rare on-screen appearance by Gilbert just before the Final Jeopardy! segment of the episode aired September 28, 2017 (season #34, show #7599, Austin Rogers's 3rd win). He has also lent his announcements to most of the Jeopardy! video games since 1992, including a few game versions in which he voiced all of the clues and effectively hosted the entire game off-screen instead of Trebek.
Gilbert briefly considered retirement after Trebek's death but chose to continue in the role. In recent years, Gilbert has handled much of his announcer load remotely, with a member of the Clue Crew providing in-studio announcements that are replaced with Gilbert's in post-production.[14] Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Gilbert began doing his announcements in a studio built for him at his home.[15][16] Since December 19, 2023, he also appears during the show's opening titles.
Alex Trebek died in 2020, and his final episodes aired in January 2021. Gilbert is the only person the daily syndicated Jeopardy! employed upon its 1984 launch to remain a part of the program's cast or crew through 2024.
In addition to announcing for Jeopardy!, Gilbert has worked as a guest announcer on its sister show, Wheel of Fortune. He announced on the episode that aired on April Fools' Day in 1997,[17] as well as a few weeks of episodes in 2010 following the death of the show's longtime announcer, Charlie O'Donnell. Gilbert also guest announced on Wheel in late 1995, when O'Donnell was ill,[18] and on the daytime show in 1988 before the death of then-regular announcer Jack Clark.
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