Gene Rayburn | |
|---|---|
 Rayburn hosting theMatch Game in 1964 | |
| Born | Eugene Peter Jeljenic (1917-12-22)December 22, 1917 |
| Died | November 29, 1999(1999-11-29) (aged 81) |
| Occupation(s) | Game show host, announcer, actor |
| Years active | 1937–1999 |
| Known for | Match Game |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Lifetime Achievement Award from theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army Air Forces |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank |  Second Lieutenant |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Gene Rayburn (bornEugene Peter Jeljenic;[1] December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the American television game showMatch Game for over two decades.
Rayburn was born inChristopher, Illinois, the younger of two children of Croatian immigrants Mary A. Hikec (August 14, 1897 – April 29, 1985) and Peter Pero Jeljenić (January 17, 1887 – December 26, 1918). In an episode ofMatch Game ‘74, Rayburn spokeSerbo-Croatian with a contestant and mentioned that his parents were born in what was thenYugoslavia. His father died when Rayburn was an infant. Mary moved her family to Chicago; it was there she met Milan Rubessa. She married Rubessa on November 10, 1919, and gave her son the nameEugene Rubessa (/ruːˈbeɪʃə/).[2] He had an elder brother, Alfred, who was killed when Rayburn was a child and a younger half-brother, Milan Rubessa Jr.
Rayburn graduated fromLindblom Technical High School and attendedKnox College. He was senior class president at Lindblom and acted in the playsRobert of Sicily andMrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.[3]
An aspiring actor and opera singer, Rayburn moved to New York City but was unable to find stage work. He found a job as apage and tour guide at NBC studios at30 Rockefeller Plaza instead.[4] After three years in that position, Rayburn began announcing at various radio stations, eventually landing back in New York atWNEW. He enlisted in theUnited States Army Air Forces and served in World War II. Gene chose the stage name "Rayburn" by randomly sticking his finger in the phone book.[5]
Before appearing in television, Rayburn was an actor and radio performer. He had a morningdrive time radio show in New York City, first withJack Lescoulie (Anything Goes) and later with Dee Finch (Rayburn & Finch) on WNEW. Rayburn's pairings with Lescoulie and Finch helped to popularize the now-familiar morning drive radio format.[5] At WNEW, he lobbied for playing of certain songs, resulting in chart popularity (e.g. "Music! Music! Music!" (recorded byTeresa Brewer)) and co-authored the lyrics of the song "Hop-Scotch Polka" withCarl Sigman (both 1949).[6] When Rayburn left WNEW, Dee Finch continued the format withGene Klavan.
Rayburn took the lead role in the Broadway musicalBye Bye Birdie whenDick Van Dyke left the production to star inThe Dick Van Dyke Show. At one point in his stage career, Rayburn's stand-in was futureMatch Game panelistCharles Nelson Reilly.[7]
Breaking into television as the original announcer onSteve Allen'sTonight, Rayburn began a long association with game show producersMark Goodson andBill Todman in 1953. He first appeared onRobert Q. Lewis'sThe Name's the Same; Rayburn frequently sat in for regular panelistCarl Reiner. In 1955, he took over as host of the summer replacement game showMake the Connection from original hostJim McKay (and appearing with his WNEW morning show successorGene Klavan). From there he hosted shows such asChoose Up Sides,Dough Re Mi,Play Your Hunch, and the daytime version ofTic Tac Dough. On radio, Rayburn became one of the many hosts of theNBC programMonitor in 1961 and remained with the show until 1973.[citation needed]
In an uncredited role (he reportedly did not want his name to appear), Rayburn played a TV interviewer in the movieIt Happened to Jane (1959) starringDoris Day. Rayburn was also a frequent panelist in the 1960s and 1970s onWhat's My Line? andTo Tell the Truth.[citation needed]
From 1962 to 1969, Rayburn hostedThe Match Game. In the original version, which aired from New York on NBC, Rayburn read questions to two panels, each consisting of a celebrity and two audience members. The questions in the original game were ordinary, like "Name a kind of muffin," or "John loves his ____________."[citation needed] Rayburn usually played it straight, though he would make jokes as the situation warranted. Very few episodes have been preserved; only four are known to exist. The show was canceled in 1969 to make room for the topical, short-lived game showLetters to Laugh-In.
Goodson-Todman revivedMatch Game in 1973 for CBS, this time as a California-based game show. Rayburn returned as host and introduced a new format in which two contestants tried to match the responses of six celebrities. WriterDick DeBartolo, a veteran of the original show, created funnier and often risqué questions ("The big bad wolf said: I just came from a house where this old lady had the biggest ____________s I ever saw.")("After it was run over by a steamroller, Norman was able to slide his ____________ under the door.")[8] Rayburn reveled in this freewheeling new approach and often indulged in funny voices, banter with the celebrities, and mock arguments with the technical crew. It soon became the highest-rated show on daytime television.[9]
From 1973 to 1977,Match Game was number one among all daytime network game shows—three of those years it was the highest rated of all daytime shows. The daytime revival ofMatch Game, which featured regular panelistsRichard Dawson,Brett Somers, andCharles Nelson Reilly, ran until 1979 on CBS and another three years in first-run syndication. A concurrent nighttime version,Match Game PM, aired in syndication from 1975 to 1981. Rayburn was nominated three times for theDaytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host.
During the years whenMatch Game was taped in Los Angeles (1973–1982), Rayburn lived inOsterville, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. He commuted to California every two weeks to tape 12 shows over the course of a weekend (five daytime shows and one nighttime show per taping day).[5]
In 1983, a year after the syndicatedMatch Game ended, the show was revived as part of theMatch Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. Rayburn hosted theMatch Game and "Super Match" segments and sat on the panel for theHollywood Squares segment, which was hosted byJon Bauman. This show lasted nine months on NBC. Rayburn, by most accounts, was disappointed with how the show turned out.[10]
During and between hisMatch Game years, Rayburn served as guest panelist on two other Goodson-Todman shows:What's My Line? andTo Tell the Truth. Also during the run of the 1970sMatch Game, Rayburn and his wife Helen appeared on the game showTattletales, hosted byBert Convy. Rayburn also hosted some episodes ofTattletales. Three years after the originalMatch Game was canceled, Rayburn hosted the short-livedHeatter-Quigley Productions showThe Amateur's Guide to Love. In 1983, he hosted a pilot forReg Grundy Productions titledParty Line, which later becameBruce Forsyth's Hot Streak.
In 1980, Rayburn was a guest star on the television showThe Love Boat. Rayburn appeared as a contestant during a tournament of game show hosts on the original version ofCard Sharks in 1980 and was a celebrity guest onPassword Plus several times between 1980 and 1982. He appeared onFantasy Island as a game show host—he and another host, played byJan Murray, were game show rivals who vied to win the woman they both loved by creating the ultimate game show, with life-or-death consequences. He once hosted a local New York City show onWNEW-TV,Helluva Town, and between game show stints in 1982–1983, he returned to WNEW-TV as host of a weekly talk and lifestyles show titledSaturday Morning Live. He ended his brief tenure to return as co-host ofMatch Game-Hollywood Squares Hour.[citation needed]
Rayburn's last game show hosting duties were on 1985'sBreak the Bank (he was replaced byJoe Farago after 13 weeks), andThe Movie Masters, anAMC game show that ran from 1989 to 1990.[citation needed] Just before production was to begin on a new Rayburn-emceedMatch Game revival in 1987,[11] anEntertainment Tonight reporter publicly disclosed that Rayburn was 69 years old, much older than many believed. Rayburn had trouble finding jobs after that, blaming the reporter for revealing his age and subjecting him toage discrimination.[4] His daughter Lynne blamed this and the subsequent lack of work he received for sending him into a downward spiral.[10]
Rayburn portrayed himself on aSaturday Night Live sketch in 1990, which featuredSusan Lucci (as her character fromAll My Children,Erica Kane). He returned as one of Kane's many previous husbands, to stop another marriage (officiated by his oldChoose Up Sides co-starDon Pardo) with the host of a game show portrayed byPhil Hartman. He also continued to make appearances on talk shows throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, usually to discuss classic game shows, including appearances onVicki! andThe Maury Povich Show andThe Late Show with Ross Shafer (Shafer hosted the 1990Match Game revival). In 1992, Rayburn also made an appearance on New York shock jockHoward Stern'slate-night TV variety show as one of the stars of hisHollywood Squares parody,Homeless Howiewood Squares, in which homeless people were supposedly the contestants.[citation needed]
Rayburn co-hosted—with his wife and Peter Emmons—theDrum Corps International finals of the DCI Championship for two years, which were telecast on PBS from Philadelphia'sFranklin Field in 1976 and Denver's originalMile High Stadium in 1977.[citation needed]
Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October 1996. They had one child, daughter Lynne.
One of Rayburn's last TV appearances was a 1998 interview withAccess Hollywood that was intended to coincide with the 25th anniversary ofMatch Game '73. Portions of the interview have been rebroadcast onGame Show Network which, in 2001, showed portions of another previously unaired interview during the first airing of itsMatch Game Blankathon.[10]
Rayburn identified as aliberal politically[12] and was a supporter ofPlanned Parenthood. Rayburn was also concerned thathuman overpopulation would become a problem in the 21st century and that it would become more difficult to supply resources, such as food, if the population grew too large. He expressed these concerns when he appeared on Game Show Hosts week onCard Sharks in 1980, where he played for Planned Parenthood as his favorite charity.
Rayburn enjoyed needlepoint and did it regularly on his many flights to and from California. He took it up when he knitted socks as a gag onRayburn and Finch. Mark Goodson presented him with a needlepoint kit on the air as a gift whenMatch Game became the number one show on daytime television.
Though in poor health and suffering from dementia,[10] Rayburn appeared in person to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from theAcademy of Television Arts & Sciences. A month later, on November 29, 1999, he died of heart failure at his daughter's home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, at age 81.[4] He was cremated and his ashes spread in the garden of his daughter's home.
Rayburn's final TV appearance was in an interview for theA&E Biography episode profiling the life of his longtime boss Mark Goodson. Though taped in late 1999, the episode did not air until June 4, 2000, over six months after Rayburn had died.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | It Happened to Jane | Himself – WTIC-TV Reporter | Uncredited |
| 1979–1982 | The Love Boat | Mason Randolph/Lyle/George Finley | 3 episodes[13] |
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None | Match Game host 1962–1969, 1973–1982, 1983–1984 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Play Your Hunch host 1962 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Tic Tac Dough host Concurrent withJay Jackson and Win Elliot 1956–1958 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by None | The Tonight Show announcer/sidekick 1954–1957 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
