Game show host Chuck Woolery, the founder of “Wheel of Fortune” and later host of “The Dating Game,” died Saturday at 83.
Woolery died after experiencing breathing trouble at his home in Texas, friend and podcast cohost Mark Young said.
“It is with a broken heart that I tell you that my dear brother @chuckwoolery has just passed away. Life will not be the same without him, RIP brother,” Young wrote on X.
Born in Ashland, Kentucky, on March 6, 1941, Woolery served in the Navy and later attended Morehead State University to study economics and sociology. But he dropped and began his entertainment career as a musician
Woolery played in a folk band, The Bordermen, and the psychedelic-pop group Avant-Garde. He also wrote several commercial jingles and a few country music ballads.
With the Avant-Garde, Woolery scored a Billboard Top 40 song with “Naturally Stoned,” in 1968.
Woolery went on to record five records with Columbia and two more with RCA.
Woolery then tried his hand at acting, and appeared in several television shows before landing as host of “Wheel of Fortune” in 1975. He hosted until 1981, when Pat Sajak began his long stint in the job.
Game shows became Woolery’s go-to career. He would later host “Love Connection,” “Scrabble,” “Lingo,” a revival of “The Dating Game,” and most recently “80s Quiz Show.”
A staunch conservative, Woolery routinely engaged online, and also cohosted a podcast called “Blunt Force Truth,” which regularly discussed such topics as the “Woke Takeover in American Corporations” and “Kamala Harris Presidency Nightmares.”
Woolery was married four times and was the father of five children. He is survived by his wife Kim and his children, Katherine, Melissa, Michael and Sean. He also had a son, Chad, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1986.
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