Famous Like Me > Actor > S > Pat Sajak
Profile of Pat Sajak
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| Name: |
Pat Sajak |
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| Date of Birth: |
26th October 1946 |
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| Place of Birth: |
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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| Profession: |
Actor |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia
Pat Sajak (born Patrick Sajdak, October 26, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois) is the current host of the Wheel of Fortune game show and hosts The Pat Sajak Baseball Hour, a syndicated radio show.
Early life
Sajak was born and raised in Chicago, son of a Polish-American trucking foreman. During his elementary years, he attended Goethe Elementary School and Gary Elementary School. As he matured, he graduated from elementary school and went on to Farragut High School and Columbia College of Chicago.
Career
Sajak won a random contest on WLS radio's Dick Biondi Show to be a guest "teen deejay". While at Columbia College, his broadcasting instructor told him that a local radio station (WEDC) was looking for a newsman. He was hired to work from midnight to 6:00 AM. In 1968, Sajak joined the U.S. Army, and was sent to Vietnam, where he deejayed on Armed Forces Radio. Later in 1977, KNBC-TV in Los Angeles was looking for a weatherman, and spotted Sajak working for NBC affiliate WSM-TV in Nashville. Sajak accepted KNBC's request for him to be a full-time weatherman for the station.
Finally, in 1981, Merv Griffin, the designer of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, called in and asked if Sajak would be interested in taking over as host of Wheel of Fortune from Chuck Woolery. Sajak accepted, and still hosts the show to date. In 1997, as part of an April Fool's joke, Sajak hosted an episode of Jeopardy! and became a contestant (along with cohost Vanna White) on Wheel of Fortune, which was being hosted by Jeopardy!'s Alex Trebek on that day.
Sajak hosted a late-night talk show on CBS in 1989 that failed miserably (a typical fate for talk shows up against Johnny Carson). He has, however, been a frequent guest host for CNN's Larry King Live when King is unable to attend. Sajak has also hosted a program, Pat Sajak Weekend, on the Fox News Channel.
Sajak is an External Director of conservative publishing house Regnery, and is on the Board of Trustees at Hillsdale College, and also has written for Human Events and served on the Board of Directors for the Claremont Institute. Sajak was a major donor to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and sometimes posts political commentary on his official website.
One of Sajak's philanthropies is an expansion of the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland. It is named the Sajak Pavilion in honor of his donations. He is also part-owner of Annapolis radio station WNAV 1430, which broadcasts Naval Academy events and other local items of interest. He has also donated $100,000 for Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.
References in popular culture
Pat Sajak has been referenced and parodized in many TV shows, movies, and animated television series. In one episode of Rugrats, for example, in which Chaz, Chuckie Finster's father, had won ten billion dollars, he was outside his house holding up a check for that amount of money. Chaz asked, "Where's Vanna?" after he exclaimed who he was.
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