Wink Martindale — the game show host known for helming “Tic-Tac-Dough,” High Rollers” and “Gambit” — has died. He was 91.
A spokesperson for Martindale’s family revealed that the beloved TV personality died Tuesday in Racho Mirage, Calif., Deadline reported. Fox News also confirmed Martindale’s passing.
The game show host was “surrounded by family and his beloved wife of 49 years, Sandra Martindale,” the spokesperson said.
A cause of death was not given.
In addition to Sandra, Martindale is survived by his daughters, Lisa, Lyn and Laura; his sister, Geraldine; and his “honorary son,” Eric.
The Post has reached out to Martindale’s rep.
Born Winston Conrad Martindale on Dec. 4, 1933 in Jackson, Tenn., Martindale was known not only for his friendly demeanor, deep voice, and colorful sports coats, but also his unusual first name.
“When I was a kid in Jackson, Tennessee, one of my playmates, Jimmy McCord, couldn’t say ‘Winston,’ which is my given name. He had a speech impediment, and it came out sounding like ‘Winky,’” Martindale told ABC News in 2014. “So Winston turned into Winky, and then I got into the business and Wink it was! It served me well.”
“Wink” got his start in show business when he was only 17, working as a disc jockey at Memphis radio station WHBQ. According to his family, Martindale met Elvis Presley one night in 1954 after repeatedly playing the King’s track “That’s All Right” on the radio, marking the first time the song hit airwaves. Martindale then called Presley’s mother asking if her son would come to the station until she and The King relented.
“Elvis soon arrived at WHBQ for his first interview, and music was changed forever,” the family said in their statement.
Two decades after befriending Elvis, Martindale married his second wife, Sandra, with a little help from the legendary singer.
His second wife, Sandy, whom he married in 1975, dated Presley on and off until shortly before the singer wed Priscilla Wagner in 1967, and she appeared as a dancer in Viva Las Vegas (1964) and other Elvis movies.
“Elvis is responsible for me marrying Wink,” she revealed in a 2015 interview.
When [Martindale] said he was from Tennessee, I said, ‘He must be a nice guy,’ because I loved the state, I loved all the guys, I loved everything in the state of Tennessee because Elvis was such a wonderful part of my life.”
Known as Sandy, the future Mrs. Martindale dated Presley on and off for a brief time before he married Priscilla Wagner in 1967 and also worked as a dancer in a handful of Elvis movies, including 1964’s “Viva Las Vegas.”
While working as a radio DJ in Memphis, Martindale hosted a popular kids TV show, “Wink Martindale of Mars Patrol.”
“All of a sudden I became a radio personality that everyone knew and respected to a television ‘star,’ and the kids loved me!” he shared in 2010.
After hosting another Memphis TV show — the “American Bandstand” adjacent “Top Ten Dance Party” — he put in a transfer to Los Angeles radio and TV network KHJ in 1959.
Martindale’s interest in game show hosting was born in 1965, when he learned of that “Password” MC Allen Ludden would “go in two days a week and tape five shows one day and five shows the next and the other five days play golf.”
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Martindale said he asked his agent, “How about sending me on a game-show hosting interview?’”
He went on to host 20 game shows in his 74-year-long career, first on NBC’s “What’s That Song?” before eventually booking “Tic-Tac-Dough,” where he worked for a decade.
This is a developing story.
