Peter Marshall, the original host ofThe Hollywood Squares, has died of kidney failure at 98.
Marshall won two Daytime Emmys during his tenure onThe Hollywood Squaresfrom 1966-1981 and was nominated an additional four times.
Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank
Marshall’s storied career in the entertainment industry began in the late 1940s.
Peter Marshall hosting ‘The Hollywood Squares’.Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank
Pinafore.He made a memorable appearance as the radio jockey Bert Healey in the 1982 film adaptation ofAnnie.
Marshall already enjoyed a full, successful career beforeHollywood Squarescame knocking.
Hosting the instantly successful game show catapulted him from working actor to in-demand A-lister.
“I’d been in the business a long time, so stars were never intimidating to me.
So I enjoyed it,” he told theTelevision Academyin a 2010 interview.
“I never thought it would work.
I thought it was a 13-week gig, really.
It was easy for me, it was the easiest thing I’d ever done in show business.
No rehearsal, I walked in and said, ‘Hello stars!’
I read questions and laughed, and got paid wonderfully well.”
Another son, David LaCock, died in 2021 due to complications from COVID-19.
