Chuck Woolery, whose game-show internet hosting profession included tenures at Wheel of Fortune and Love Connection, has died at age 83.
Mark Younger, Woolery’s pal and podcast cohost, shared the information on X on Saturday. “It’s with a damaged coronary heart that I let you know that my expensive brother @chuckwoolery has simply handed away,” Younger wrote. “Life is not going to be the identical with out him. RIP, brother.”
Younger advised TMZ he was at Woolery’s dwelling in Texas when the previous TV host reported not feeling properly and went to lie down. When Younger checked in later, Woolery was having hassle respiration, and regardless of a 911 name, Woolery died shortly thereafter.
Woolery was born on March 16, 1941, in Ashland, Kentucky, to a enterprise proprietor and a homemaker, in response to The Hollywood Reporter. After stints on the College of Kentucky, within the U.S. Navy, and at Morehead State College, Woolery moved to Nashville to start out a music profession. He and singer Elkin “Bubba” Fowler shaped the psychedelic pop duo The Avant-Garde, and their music “Naturally Stoned” peaked at No. 40 on the Billboard Scorching 100 in 1968.
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A singing efficiency on The Merv Griffin Present led Woolery to audition for a brand new sport present, initially titled Shopper’s Bazaar, that Merv Griffin was creating on the time. After some tinkering, Wheel of Fortune debuted on NBC on January 6, 1975. Griffin earned a Daytime Emmy for his Wheel work and hosted the present till 1981, when a wage dispute led producers to switch him with Pat Sajak.
Woolery moved on with a job internet hosting the syndicated courting sport present Love Connection from 1983 to 1994, pulling in 4.5 million viewers a day at one level. He additionally emceed the sport present Scrabble from 1984 to 1990, and between the 2 exhibits, he was incomes $1 million a yr by 1986, as Individuals reported on the time. Woolery additionally hosted the sport present Greed on Fox from 1999 to 2000 and Lingo on Recreation Present Community from 2002 to 2007.
In recent times, Woolery stoked controversy along with his political beliefs, posting a tweet that sparked antisemitism accusations in 2017 after which claiming in 2020 that “everybody [was] mendacity” concerning the coronavirus pandemic, as Newsweek reported. He additionally argued that minorities didn’t want civil rights, in response to the Related Press.
Woolery was married 4 instances, and his ex-wives included actor Jo Ann Pflug. He had eight kids and stepchildren, per THR.