TV's Merv Griffin dead at 82

LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- TV game show and hotel mogul Merv Griffin, who started his career as a $100 a week singer in San Francisco, died of prostate cancer Sunday.

The 82-year-old underwent had started a number of successful business ventures, including the creation of popular game shows "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune," Los Angeles' FOX11 reported. He parlayed that into a billion-dollar hotel and casino enterprise.

Marcia Newberger, a spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment said Griffin was recently hospitalized for a recurrence of prostate cancer, which he had been treated successfully for more than 10 years ago.

Griffin also had a brief career on the silver screen before moving to television as the host of "The Merv Griffin Show," which aired for more than 20 years.

He is survived by his son Tony.

"My father was a visionary," said Tony Griffin in a statement Sunday. "He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized."