Latest news with #HighRollers
The Guardian
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Post your questions for Gina Gershon
Gina Gershon has been on our screens for nearly 40 years, during which she has starred in scene-stealing roles opposite some of Hollywood's biggest actors. In her more likable moments, she orders an orgasm from cocktail-maker Tom Cruise in Cocktail ('How many would you like?' 'Multiple' – fnar fnar) and takes a bullet for Nicolas Cage in Face/Off. In her less likable (but equally scene-stealing) moments, she receives a lapdance from – and gets pushed down the stairs by – Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls, chops Val Kilmer into small pieces in Breathless, gets murdered under the supposed watch of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi in Red Heat, and is forced by Matthew McConaughey to simulate oral sex on a chicken drumstick in Killer Joe. Ahem. Now Gershon stars as the wife of Vegas thief John Travolta in High Rollers, although, from the trailer, in which she gets kidnapped to force Travolta to work, it's hard to see if we're dealing with a nice or nasty Gina. But that won't stop her having plenty to talk about; ask her anything. Maybe her first bit part in 1986's Pretty in Pink or becoming a gay icon for starring as a lesbian ex-con in the Wachowskis' first film, Bound in 1996. Or there's that time in Curb Your Enthusiasm where she offers to have sex with Larry David as his birthday present from Cheryl. She has also parodied Melania Trump on more than one occasion. And perhaps most bizarrely of all, she played the jaw harp on the second Scissor Sisters album. Please get your questions in for Gina by 6pm BST Monday 2 June, and we'll print her answers in Film & Music later in June. High Rollers is on digital platforms from 16 June
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wink Martindale, the king of the television game show, dies at 91
Wink Martindale, the king of the television game show who hosted "Tic-Tac-Dough," "Gambit," "High Rollers" and a slew of other programs that became staples in living rooms across America, died Tuesday in Rancho Mirage. He was 91. Martindale, a longtime voice of Los Angeles radio who had an unexpected hit record in the late 1950s, died surrounded by family and his wife of 49 years, Sandra Martindale, according to a news release from his publicity firm. Throughout a long career in radio and television, Martindale was frequently asked how he came by his unusual first name. As he would explain, one of his young friends in Jackson, Tenn., had trouble saying his given name, Winston, and it came out sounding like Winkie. The nickname, shortened to Wink after he got into radio, stuck — with one exception. After Martindale signed to host his first national TV game show in 1964, NBC's head of daytime programming felt that the name Wink sounded too juvenile. So, for its nearly one-year run, 'What's This Song?' was hosted by Win Martindale. Not that he particularly minded having the 'k' dropped from Wink. 'Not really, because I loved those checks [from NBC],' he said in a 2017 interview for the Television Academy Foundation. 'They can call me anything they want to call me: Winkie-dinkie-doo, the Winkmeister, the Winkman, you name it.' Read more: Wink Martindale gets back in the game with new show The genial, dapper TV host with the gleaming smile and perfectly coiffed hair had hosted two local TV game shows in L.A. before going national with 'What's This Song?' Over the decades, according to his website, Martindale either hosted or produced 21 game shows, including 'Words and Music,' 'Trivial Pursuit,' 'The Last Word' and 'Debt.' 'That's a lot of shows,' he acknowledged in a 1996 interview with the New York Daily News. 'It either means everybody wants me to do their show or I can't hold a job.' Martindale was best known for hosting 'Tic-Tac-Dough,' the revival of a late 1950s show, which aired on CBS for less than two months in 1978 but continued in syndication until 1986. Unlike tic-tac-toe, in which two players simply try to get three Xs or three Os in a row in a nine-box grid, 'Tic-Tac-Dough' required contestants to select a subject category in each of the nine boxes, everything from geography to song titles. Each correct answer earned the players their X or O in the chosen box. 'Tic-Tac-Dough' achieved its highest ratings in 1980 during the 88-game, 46-show run of Lt. Thom McKee, a handsome young Navy fighter pilot whose winning streak earned him $312,700 in cash and prizes and a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. 'Our ratings were never as big until he came on and were never as big after he left,' Martindale said in his Television Academy Foundation interview. As he saw it, the simplicity of 'Tic-Tac-Dough' and other TV game shows helps explain their continued popularity. Read more: After All These Careers, Deejay Wink Martindale Is Still on the Air People at home, he said, 'gravitate to games that they know. They can sit there, and they say to themselves, 'Man, I could have gotten that; I can play that game.' And when you get that from a home viewer or a person in the audience, you've got them captured.' Martindale left 'Tic-Tac-Dough' in 1985, a year before it went off the air, to host a show that he had created. Alas, 'Headline Chasers' lasted less than a year. As Martindale told The Times in 2010, 'There have been a lot of bombs between the hits.' Born Winston Conrad Martindale on Dec. 4, 1933, in Jackson, Tenn., he was one of five children. His father was a lumber inspector and his mother a housewife. While growing up, Martindale was a big fan of the popular radio shows of the day and early on dreamed of becoming a radio announcer. For years, he recalled in his Television Academy Foundation interview, he'd tear out advertisements from Life magazine and, behind a closed bedroom door, he'd ad-lib commercials as he pretended to be on the radio. All that practice paid off. After repeatedly hounding the manager of a small, 250-watt local radio station in Jackson for a job, Martindale was offered an audition less than two months after graduating high school in 1951. At 17, the former drugstore soda jerk was hired at $25 a week to work the 4-11 p.m. shift at radio station WPLI. On-air jobs at two increasingly higher-wattage local radio stations followed before he landed his 'dream' job in 1953: hosting the popular morning show 'Clockwatchers' at WHBQ Radio in Memphis, Tenn. For Martindale, working at WHBQ was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Read more: Chuck Woolery, host of 'Love Connection' and other game shows, dies at 83 One night in July 1954, he later recalled, he was showing some friends around the station when popular DJ Dewey Phillips played a demonstration disc of a recently recorded song that had been given to him by Sam Phillips (no relation), the founder of Sun Records in Memphis. The song was 'That's All Right' and the singer was a young Memphis electric company truck driver named Elvis Presley. 'Dewey put it on the turntable and the switchboard lit up,' Martindale said in a 2010 interview with The Times. 'He kept playing it over and over.' The song caused so much excitement that a call was made to Presley's home to have him come in for an on-air interview. Elvis wasn't home, so Gladys and Vernon Presley drove to a movie theater, where their son was watching a western, and drove him to the radio station for his first interview. 'That was the beginning of Presley mania,' said Martindale. 'I think of that as the night when the course of popular music changed forever.' After WHBQ launched a television station in Memphis in 1953, Martindale branched into TV, first hosting a daily half-hour children's show called 'Wink Martindale of the Mars Patrol.' The live show featured a costumed Martindale, who would interview half a dozen kids in a cheaply built spaceship set, and segue to five- or six-minutes of old Flash Gordon movie serials. Then, influenced by the success of Dick Clark's still-local teenage dance show 'Bandstand' in Philadelphia, Martindale began co-hosting WHBQ-TV's 'Top 10 Dance Party.' He scored a coup in June 1956 when he landed Elvis, by then a show-business phenomenon, for an appearance and interview with Martindale on his live show — for free. Col. Tom Parker, Presley's manager, 'would never speak to me after that because he wanted to be paid for everything. We had no budget. They hardly paid me, for Pete's sake,' Martindale told The Times in 2010. Read more: Peter Marshall, affable host of NBC's original 'Hollywood Squares,' dies at 98 Because of Martindale's local popularity with his 'Top 10 Dance Party,' a small Memphis record company, OJ Records, signed him to a recording contract. His recording of 'Thought It was Moonlove' led to his signing with Dot Records, for which he recorded well into the 1960s. Martindale, who had a pleasant but not memorable singing voice, also played himself as the host of a teen TV dance show in the low-budget 1958 movie 'Let's Rock!,' in which he sang the mildly rocking 'All Love Broke Loose.' While working on radio and TV in Memphis, Martindale graduated from what is now the University of Memphis, where he majored in speech and drama. In 1959, he moved to L.A. to become the morning DJ on radio station KHJ. That same year, he scored a surprise hit in 'Deck of Cards,' which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 11 on its Hot Country Songs chart. Martindale, who received a gold record for the recording, performed the piece on Ed Sullivan's popular Sunday-night variety show. While working at KHJ Radio in 1959, he began hosting 'The Wink Martindale Dance Party' on KHJ-TV on Saturdays. The popular show, broadcast from a studio, also began airing weekdays, live from Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Over the years, in addition to KHJ, Martindale worked at L.A. radio stations KRLA, KFWB, KMPC and KGIL. In 2006, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A year later, he became one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. 'I always loved games,' he said in his Television Academy Foundation interview. 'Once I got into the world of games, I just seemed to glide from one to the other. … I never looked down upon the idea that I was branded as a game-show host, because most people like games.' Martindale is survived by his wife, Sandra; sister Geraldine; his daughters Lisa, Lyn and Laura; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. McLellan is a former Times staff writer. Sign up for Essential California for the L.A. Times biggest news, features and recommendations in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Express Tribune
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Wink Martindale, iconic host of 'Tic-Tac-Dough' and 'Gambit,' dies at 91
Wink Martindale, the legendary game show host known for classics like Tic-Tac-Dough, Gambit, and High Rollers, has died at the age of 91. The news was confirmed on Tuesday via his official Facebook page, with a tribute calling him 'amazing, funny and talented. Truly a LEGEND!' With a career spanning more than seven decades, Martindale was a major figure in both radio and television. He began his journey as a radio DJ at age 17, rising to prominence at Memphis station WHBQ. In 1954, he played a pivotal role in Elvis Presley's early career, calling Elvis' mother after hearing his debut track and helping arrange one of the singer's first interviews. Martindale also had a brief but successful music career of his own. His spoken-word single Deck of Cards reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million copies. In the 1960s, he transitioned to television in Los Angeles, working with KHJ and several other major radio stations before landing his first TV hosting job in 1964 with What's This Song?. His game show career took off with hits like Gambit, Words and Music, and Tic-Tac-Dough, where his charm and signature voice made him a household name. He also hosted other shows including The Last Word, Headline Chasers, Trivial Pursuit, and The Great Getaway Game, cementing his legacy as a staple of American game show history. Martindale is remembered as a pioneering entertainer who helped define a genre that captivated generations.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wink Martindale, Host of ‘Tic-Tac-Dough' and ‘Gambit', Dies at 91
Wink Martindale, a pioneer of game show frontmen and the host of 'Tic-Tac-Dough,' 'Gambit' and 'High Rollers,' died Tuesday. He was 91. The news was confirmed through his official Facebook page. In a post sharing an obituary for Martindale, the page wrote, 'It's with a very sad and heavy heart that we here at Wink Martindale Games have to report the passing of the legendary Wink Martindale. Wink was amazing, funny and talented. Truly a LEGEND! More to come soon.' More from Variety 'Tic Tac Dough' Revival, 'Beat the Bridge' Adaptation Among New Originals Set for Game Show Network Martindale spent 74 years in the radio and television business, starting his career at 17 as a DJ before making a name for himself at Memphis-based station WHBQ. Famosuly, in 1954, DJ Dewey Phillips aired Elvis Presley's debut record, 'That's All Right' for the first time. Upon hearing the track, Martindale called Presley's mother to see if he could come to his station for a chat. The conversation is thought to be instrumental in launching the career of a young Presley. Martindale himself released a number of successful records, including the spoken-word track 'Deck of Cards,' which peaked at seventh on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold more than one million copies. In the early 60s, Martindale moved to Los Angeles and became a host for KHJ. He would go on to work for several stations in the greater L.A. area, including KRLA, KFBW, KGIL-AM and KMPC. In 1964, he landed his first gig as a game show host on 'What's This Song?' He would later move on to shows like 'Gambit,' 'Words and Music' and 'Tic-Tac-Dough.' His other hosting credits include 'The Last Word,' 'The Great Getaway Game,' 'Trivial Pursuit,' 'Headline Chasers' and more. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
Forbes
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Wink Martindale Dies: The Iconic Game Show Host Was 91
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 08: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Wink Martindale visits the SiriusXM studios on ... More August 08, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by) Wink Martindale, one of the most recognized game show hosts in television history, died Tuesday died in Rancho Mirage, California. He was 91. Martindale passed away surrounded by family and his wife of 49 years, Sandra Martindale, according to a news release from his publicity firm. Through the course of his career, Martindale hosted 15 game shows, with his three greatest successes Tic-Tac-Dough, High Rollers and Gambit. Including his later role as a producer, the number of game shows on his resume rose to 21. Born Winston Conrad Martindale on December 4, 1933 in Jackson, Mississippi, Martindale started his career as a disc jockey at age 17 at WPLI in his hometown. While attending Memphis State University, Martindale hosted of morning show Clockwatchers on radio station WHBQ. An early segue into television came at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, where he hosted Mars Patrol, a science-fiction themed children's television series. Next as a host at the station was Teenage Dance Party, which featured an appearance by Elvis Presley, who was a personal friend, in 1956. American singer Elvis Presley (1935 - 1977) appears with presenter Wink Martindale (left) on Wink's ... More television show 'Teenage Dance Party' in Memphis, Tennessee, 16th June 1956. (Photo by Silver) Martindale also had a hit record in the 1950s with the spoken-word country song, Deck of Cards. Nicknamed "Wink" by a neighborhood friend, Martindale's first break on television came at age 31 as host of the game show What's This Song? on NBC from 1964 to 1965. Next on NBC was another musical-themed game show, Words and Music, from 1970 to 1971. But it was the original Gambit from 1970 to 1974 on CBS (and later the Las Vegas-based revival from 1980 to 1981) that brought him national recognition. LOS ANGELES - AUGUST 25: Pictured is host Wink Martindale on the CBS television game show GAMBIT. ... More August 25, 1972. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) Martindale's greatest success as a game show host came courtesy of the revival of Tic-Tac-Dough beginning in 1978. He exited in 1985 to host the one season Headline Chasers through his newly formed production company, Wink Martindale Enterprises. Next under his production banner was the three season game show Bumper Stumpers, which aired on both American and Canadian television from 1987 until 1990. Prior to Bumper Stumpers, and in a partnership with producer Jerry Gilden, Martindale/Gilden Productions secured the licensing rights from Parker Brothers to develop game shows based on Parker-owned properties. After hosting the short-lived revival of High Rollers and the Canadian game show The Last Word, Martindale moved into a producer's role on The Great Getaway Game on Travel Channel in 1990. He also produced and hosted a series of interactive game shows for the old Family Channel, including Trivial Pursuit in 1993. Martindale then headed to Lifetime to host game show Debt, which ran from 1996 to 1998. Additionally, Martindale was active doing commercials for Orbitz and KFC, among other outlets, and made guest appearances on such programs as Most Outrageous Game Show Moments, The Chase, and The Bold and the Beautiful. In 2006, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And he was one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame, amopng other career honors. Wink Martindale during Game Show Host Wink Martindale Honored With Star On the Hollywood Walk of ... More Fame at 7018 Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood, CA, United States. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic) Beginning in 2014, Martindale had started his own YouTube channel, called Wink's Vault, featuring episodes of game shows, game show pilots, rare clips from various game shows, among other clips. Martindale is survived by his wife, Sandra; sister Geraldine; his daughters Lisa, Lyn and Laura; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
