15-04-2025
Game Show Host Wink Martindale, of Tic-Tac-Dough Fame, Dead at 91
Wink Martindale, who hosted several memorable TV game shows in the '70s, '80s and '90s, including Tic-Tac-Dough, has died at the age of 91.
Martindale passed away Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California while 'surrounded by family and his beloved wife of 49 years, Sandra Martindale,' according to a family statement provided to our sister site Deadline.
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Starting his career as a radio DJ, Martindale moved to television, hosting his first game show in 1964: NBC's What's This Song?, which ended the following year. He went on to host Gambit, a game show based on the card game blackjack, that ran from 1972 to 1976 on CBS, along with a brief 1980 revival on NBC.
Martindale's best-known game show was Tic-Tac-Dough, a version of the classic tic-tac-toe game that debuted on CBS and in syndication in 1978. On the show, players answered trivia questions to claim X's and O's on a nine-space board, with a bonus round that included a 'dragon' square that resulted in a player losing all their money. Tic-Tac-Dough became a hit, and Martindale remained as host until 1985, when he left to host a new syndicated game show called Headline Chasers.
Martindale also created and co-produced the popular USA Network game show Bumper Stumpers, which premiered in 1987, and hosted a short-lived revival of the dice game High Rollers. He later hosted game shows based on the board games Trivial Pursuit and Boggle for the Family Channel in the mid-'90s, as well as the Lifetime game show Debt. In recent years, Martindale became an elder statesman of TV game show hosts, making appearances as himself in commercials and on other game shows.
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