Statistics
Occupation
TV presenter, Game show presenter
Gender
Male
Marital status
married
Spouse
Lesly Sajak
Children
Patrick Sajak, Maggie Sajak
Notable credit(s)
Wheel of Fortune (NBC, Syndicated)
Official website
http://www.patsajak.com/
Pat Sajak (born Patrick Leonard Sajdak on October 26, 1946), is an Emmy Award-winning television personality and one-time talk show host, best known as the host of the popular and long-running American television game show, Wheel of Fortune.
Sajak, son of a Polish American trucking foreman, was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Joyce, remarried to Walter Backal. During his elementary years, he attended Goethe Elementary School, as well as Gary Elementary School. He graduated Farragut High School in 1964 and then went on to Columbia College Chicago.
Sajak won a contest on WLS radio's Dick Biondi Show to be a guest "teen deejay". While at Columbia College Chicago, his broadcasting instructor Al Parker told him that a local radio station (WEDC) was looking for a newsman. Pat applied for the job and was hired to work from midnight to 6:00 AM. In 1968, Sajak joined the U.S. Army, and was sent to Vietnam, where he deejayed on Armed Forces Radio. 1975 found Pat DJ'ing at 50,000-watt WSM in Nashville; at the time WSM was playing pop music during the day (country at night), and Pat was the 3:00–5:00pm afternoon personality. Later, in 1977, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles was looking for a weatherman, and spotted Sajak working for NBC affiliate WSM-TV in Nashville. Sajak accepted KNBC's request for him to be a full-time weatherman for the station. He also had a small role as a Buffalo, New York newscaster in the 1982 spoof film Airplane II: The Sequel.
In 1981, Merv Griffin, the designer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, asked Pat if he would be interested in taking over the duties as host of Wheel of Fortune from Chuck Woolery. Pat, who already had hosted a few game show pilots, accepted the position. From 1983 to 1989, Sajak hosted both the daytime (NBC) and nighttime (syndicated) versions of Wheel of Fortune. He still hosts the syndicated nighttime version of the show. When his late-night talk show on CBS premiered in January 1989, he left the daytime version of "Wheel," and was replaced by former San Diego Chargers place-kicker Rolf Benirschke.
In July 1989, the daytime version moved from NBC to CBS, and production of both versions of the show moved from NBC Studios in Burbank, California to CBS Television City in Hollywood. Bob Goen replaced Benirschke as host of the daytime show at that time. The daytime show moved back to NBC in 1991 and ended several months later. Since 1995, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have been produced at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.
In 1997, as part of an April Fool's joke, Sajak and Alex Trebek switched jobs. Sajak hosted Jeopardy! and became a contestant along with the hostess Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune, which Trebek hosted. Both Sajak and White played for charity, he for the Boy Scouts of America and she for the American Cancer Society. Sajak's wife Lesly took Vanna's place on the letter board. On an episode which aired in 2000, Sajak's children Patrick and Maggie delivered the show's closing comments in place of their father and White.
Sajak hosted a late-night talk show on CBS from January 9, 1989 - April 13, 1990 that failed to make ratings headway against Johnny Carson. He has since been a frequent guest host for CNN's Larry King Live when King himself was unable to attend. Sajak is also a regular substitute host for Regis Philbin on the syndicated Live With Regis and Kelly. Sajak also hosted a program, Pat Sajak Weekend, on the Fox News Channel in 2003. Sajak also currently hosts The Pat Sajak Baseball Hour, a syndicated radio sports talk show.
Sajak also is an External Director of conservative publishing house Regnery and is on the Board of Trustees at Hillsdale College in southern Michigan. He also has written for Human Events and served on the Board of Directors for the Claremont Institute. Pat was a major donor to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and often posts political commentary on his official website.
Sajak once commented on Wheel of Fortune that his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has the wrong emblem. His emblem is a movie camera when it should be a TV set. He quipped on the show that "someone should pry it off and sell it on eBay - it's a collectible!".
Pat is married to his second wife Lesly Brown, and has a son named Patrick and a daughter named Maggie. The couple lives in Severna Park, Maryland.
One of Sajak's philanthropies is an expansion of the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland; it is named the Sajak Pavilion in honor of his donations. He is also part-owner of Annapolis radio station WNAV 1430, which broadcasts Naval Academy events and other local items of interest, and Westminster, Maryland radio station WTTR, which plays Oldies. He has also donated $100,000 to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.
Pat Sajak has been referenced and parodied in many TV shows, movies, and animated television series.
Preceded by
Chuck Woolery
Host of Wheel of Fortune (daytime)
1981–1989
Succeeded by
Rolf Benirschke (1989)
Preceded by
Bob Barker
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
Succeeded by
Bob Barker
Preceded by
Bob Barker
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host
1997 – 1998
Succeeded by
Ben Stein and Jimmy Kimmel
