los angeles alex trebek who presided over the beloved quiz show jeopardy for more than 30 years with dapper charm and a touch of schoolmaster strictness died sunday he was 80trebek who announced in 2019 that he had advanced pancreatic cancer died at his los angeles home surrounded by family and friends jeopardy studio sony saidthe canadianborn host who made a point of informing fans about his health directly spoke in a calm even tone as he revealed his illness and hope for a cure in a video posted march 6 2019in the video trebek said he was joining the 50000 other americans who receive such a diagnosis each year and that he recognized that the prognosis was not encouragingbut trebek said he intended to fight it and keep working even joking that he needed to beat the disease because his jeopardy contract ran for three more years less than a week later he opened the show with a message acknowledging the outpouring of kind words and prayers hed receivedthanks to the believe it or not hundreds of thousands of people who have sent in tweets texts emails cards and letters wishing me well trebek said im a lucky guymessages of grief and respect from former contestants celebrities and the wider public quickly followed news of his lossalex wasnt just the best ever at what he did he was also a lovely and deeply decent man and im grateful for every minute i got to spend with him tweeted jeopardy champion ken jennings thinking today about his family and his jeopardy family which in a way included millions of usit was one of the great privileges of my life to spend time with this courageous man while he fought the battle of his life you will never be replaced in our hearts alex james holzhauer another jeopardy star posted on twitterjohn legend tweeted that he was obsessed with jeopardy as a nerdy kid growing up in ohio ive loved and revered alex trebek since i can remember what an iconic careerjeopardy bills itself as americas favorite quiz show and captivated the public with a unique format in which contestants were told the answers and had to provide the questions on a variety of subjects including movies politics history and popular culturethey would answer by saying what is or who is trebek who became its host in 1984 was a master of the format engaging in friendly banter with contestants appearing genuinely pleased when they answered correctly and at the same time moving the game along in a brisk nononsense fashion whenever people struggled for answershe never pretended to know the answers himself if he really didnt deferring to the shows experts to decide whether a somewhat vague answer had come close enough to be counted as correcti try not to take myself too seriously he told an interviewer in 2004 i dont want to come off as a pompous ass and indicate that i