Sad news today – the great Alex Trebek, "Jeopardy"'s long-time host has passed away after a long, courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He was eighty years old. The news was broken by the official "Jeopardy" Twitter account:
This one hurts. Trebek was an icon, having hosted "Jeopardy" for thirty-five years. Universally beloved, you never really heard an unkind word about Trebek, who – of course – was lovingly sent up on "Saturday Night Live"'s Celebrity Jeopardy, with Will Ferrell having memorably played the part. When Ferrell retired from SNL, Trebek himself showed up to give him a send-off.
Of course, we've all known for some time that Trebek was fighting pancreatic cancer, but even still, he continued to host "Jeopardy" and was an inspiring figure to all those afflicted with an illness. His battle with the deadly disease had its ups and downs, and Trebek never shied away from that fact. His public announcement of his illness was especially moving:
Trebek was a class-act through and through, and will be missed.
UPDATE: It looks like Trebek, before he passed, managed to film a cameo (as himself)) for fellow Canadian Ryan Reynolds's upcoming film FREE GUY. He shared his condolences on Twitter shortly after his passing, as did many other famous faces.