Peter Marshall, Longtime Host of The Hollywood Squares, Dies at 98 of Kidney Failure

The TV personality was 98 years old. He died of kidney failure at his home in the Encino, California, neighborhood, while surrounded by his loved ones, his publicist, Harlan Boll, confirmed to the press.

“Our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather passed away this morning. We will love him forever,” a statement on his official X account from his family read.

Marshall hosted The Hollywood Squares for 16 years from 1966 to 1981 after filling in for Bert Parks. Initially, he only thought the gig would only last 13 weeks. Much to his surprise, it lasted far longer and earned him the love of game show fans everywhere.

Marshall had toured with big bands starting as a teenager, had been a part of two comedy teams that appeared in nightclubs and on television, appeared in movies as a contract player for Twentieth Century Fox, and had sung in several Broadway musicals when the opportunity came up after Bert Parks, who hosted the pilot, bowed out.

“I am a singer first I am not a game show host,” Marshall told his hometown paper, the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia in 2013, “that was just a freak opportunity. I had been on Broadway with Julie Harris and was going back to Broadway when I did the audition, and I thought it was a few weeks but that turned into 16 years.”

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