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Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. During the 1960s, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show, and created the highly successful game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. A billionaire at his death, he is considered an entertainment business magnate. Griffin was born into a middle class Irish American family on July 6, 1925 in San Mateo, California to Mervyn Griffin Sr., a stock broker and Rita Griffin (née Robinson), a homemaker. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist.This is one of the reasons he got into show business early, he was considered a piano prodigy. He attended San Mateo High School, class of 1942, and continued to aid in financing the school.

Griffin kept many details of his personal and business life private. On being wealthy he said that "if people know you`re rich they don`t talk with you when you walk down the street." He kept his wealth as an open secret amassing media outlets, hotels and casinos with a net worth widely estimated at more than a billion dollars. Two same-sex palimony and sexual harassment lawsuits in 1991 brought questions about Griffin`s sexuality to a national level. In 1991, Griffin was hit with both a US$200 million palimony lawsuit by former "secretary/driver/horse-trainer/bodyguard" Brent Plott, and an US$11.3 million sexual harassment lawsuit from Dance Fever host "Denny" Deney Terrio; both suits were ultimately dismissed with prejudice.

Griffin`s prostate cancer, treated originally in 1996, returned and he was admitted to Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where his condition deteriorated leading to his death on August 12, 2007. He was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and his headstone reads "I will not be right back after this message," an epitaph Griffin announced on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."

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