LOS ANGELES — Game show host Alex Trebek, who as the brainy quizmaster of “Jeopardy!” became one of the most recognizable personalities on American television, died on Sunday at the age of 80, the show said on its official Twitter account.

The Canadian-born Trebek said in a YouTube video in March 2019 that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, vowing to beat the disease despite the long odds.

Trebek told fans in August 2019 he had completed chemotherapy, but he disclosed the following month that he had to restart treatment because of a setback.

He passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends, the show’s tweet said.

Twenty years after “Jeopardy!” first aired in 1964, Trebek became the face of the show and turned it into a ratings powerhouse.

“Jeopardy!” which requires contestants to display their knowledge of a broad range of trivia topics by providing their answers in the form of a question, has consistently drawn more than 20 million viewers a week in the United States and Canada, making it the most-watched quiz show in those markets.

Its ratings have risen even higher when contestants have racked up several weeks of consecutive wins.

“Here’s the belief that lies at the core of Alex’s TV persona: ‘Jeopardy!’ itself, not he, is the star of the show,” Ken Jennings, a former “Jeopardy!” contestant who holds the record for the longest winning streak on the show, said of Trebek in a 2019 column in the New York Times.

“It’s hard to imagine any modern TV personality deftly avoiding the spotlight like that,” Jennings added.

Trebek was known for engaging contestants with straight-faced but witty banter and for his scholarly demeanor and scrupulous pronunciation.

Jennings compared Trebek, who hosted more than 7,000 episodes of “Jeopardy!” with the late news anchor Walter Cronkite and talk-show host Johnny Carson because his nightly presence on television had become a “matter of ritual.”

Trebek won six Emmy Awards for outstanding game-show host, most recently in 2019, and also received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2011. The Hollywood Reporter said in a 2014 article that Trebek was earning $10 million a year.

Canada to California

Trebek was born in the nickel-mining city of Sudbury, Ontario, the son of a Ukrainian immigrant father and a French-Canadian mother.

He earned a degree in philosophy at the University of Ottawa, beginning his career in broadcasting while still attending school.

After hosting a number of television shows in Canada during the 1960s, Trebek was encouraged to move to California in 1973 by the late actor Alan Thicke, a fellow Canadian, to host a short-lived NBC game show called “The Wizard of Odds.”

In the following years, Trebek hosted a few other shows with equally quirky names, such as “High Rollers” and “Battlestars.”

None of them became an enduring success but they bolstered Trebek’s reputation in Hollywood and eventually paved the way for his joining “Jeopardy!”

Television personality Merv Griffin, along with his wife, Julann, came up with the idea for “Jeopardy! in the 1960s.”

Art Fleming, who died in 1995, served as the show’s original host in its initial run from 1964 to 1975 and in a 1978-79 revival.

When Griffin revived “Jeopardy!” again after a hiatus of several years, producers chose Trebek to host it and Trebek also helped produce the show for his first three seasons.

One of the gigs that helped him secure the position was a temporary role on “Wheel of Fortune,” another game show Griffin had created, according to an interview Trebek gave in 2007.

Viewers became oddly attached to the mustache Trebek sported from early in his career until he shaved it off in 2001. It made headlines when he grew back the mustache in 2014.

Trebek is survived by his wife, Jean, and their two adult children, Emily and Matthew.

-reuters-

Mexican crooner Jose Jose, hero of jilted lovers, dead at 71

MIAMI - Jose Jose, a velvety-voiced Mexican crooner who was wildly popular in Latin America over a 50-year career that spawned love song after love song, has died, the Mexican government and his son said Saturday. He was 71.

Jose Sosa Ortiz, known as the "principe de la cancion," or prince of song, had suffered from pancreatic cancer.

"We regret to report the death of singer Jose Romulo Sosa, better known as Jose Jose ... since the beginning of his career, the singer of 'El Triste' was one of the most beloved voices in Mexico," the country's Culture Ministry said on Twitter.

Son Jose Joel posted images of black ribbons on his Facebook page, saying "we are trying to process the situation by having in our heart the divine promise that we will see and hold him again, never to be separated."

Mexican broadcaster Televisa, which Jose Jose worked with for much of his career, reported that the singer died Saturday at a hospital in Homestead, Florida, near Miami.

He sold more than 120 million records during his professional life, many of them featuring songs meant to comfort jilted lovers.

In his heyday in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, Jose Jose churned out hit records at a dizzying pace.

His first international hit -- "La Nave del Olvido," or "The Ship of Oblivion" -- came out in 1970 and is still heard on Latin American radio stations from time to time.

"He was an extraordinary singer," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said. 

"He made many people in my generation cry or feel happy with his songs," the 65-year-old leader said. "The best tribute that we can pay him is to remember and never stop listening to his songs. Some of his hits are just amazing."

Jose Jose had an interest in mysticism, and in March 2018, when he revealed to his fans that he had been diagnosed with cancer, he blamed it on what he called negative energy surrounding him.

Romances and alcoholism 

After the news of his death, fans flocked to Claveria, the middle-class neighborhood of the Mexican capital where Jose Jose grew up, to sing his best-known songs, including "El Triste."

Jose Jose was very open with the press and his fans about his personal life, including his romances and battle with alcoholism.

In 2008, he published his autobiography, entitled "Esta es mi vida," or "This is My Life," and promoted it as an inspiration for people battling addiction.

Jose Jose quit drinking in 1993, but the hard life he had led, the strain on his voice after decades of performing, and other health issues silenced his beloved tenor tones. He stopped singing in the early 2000s.

Sosa Ortiz was born in Mexico City to a family of musicians. As a small child, he got his first taste of that world by singing in school choirs.

As a teen, he performed in taverns and sang serenades until he recorded his first album in 1969. It was a smash hit.

That was when he took Jose Jose as his showbiz name, the second Jose meant to honor his father, who had died a year earlier.

The crooner married three times and fathered three children. His widow is Sara Salazar, a Cuban he married in 1995. They moved from Mexico to Miami that same year.

In an interview in January 2018 on Telemundo to promote a TV series based on his life, Jose Jose was a mere shadow of what he had been. He spoke in a weak, fragile voice, his face partially paralyzed.

Asked about love, the man who spent decades singing about it, said that throughout his life, he had never been able to stand up for himself with his lovers.

"They did absolutely whatever they wanted with me," he said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Queen of Soul' Aretha Franklin dies at 76

NEW YORK  - Aretha Franklin, the preacher's daughter whose powerful voice made her the long-reigning "Queen of Soul" with such hit songs as "Respect" and "Chain of Fools," died on Thursday at the age of 76, officials said.

Franklin, who won 18 Grammys and had some 25 gold records, died at her home in Detroit, according to one of her publicists. She had been battling advanced pancreatic cancer, and her family had asked for prayers.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said few people in the city's history had been as universally loved or had left as indelible a mark as Franklin, describing her as a "performer without peers."

"Throughout her extraordinary life and career, she earned the love - and yes, the respect - of millions of people, not just for herself and for women everywhere, but for the city she loved so dearly and called home," Duggan said in a statement.

Franklin's father was a Baptist preacher in Detroit, and the gospel singing she heard in his church was her musical foundation. She created a uniquely emotional and powerful voice that put her at the forefront of 1960s soul music along with Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett.

Franklin sang at the funeral of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, as well as at the presidential inaugurations of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. In 1987 she became the first woman voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2010 Rolling Stone magazine named her the No. 1 singer of the rock era.

After recording and touring as a young gospel singer, Franklin's career took a secular turn in 1961 when she signed with Columbia Records. She had only modest success with Columbia, which had trouble classifying her style and tried to steer her toward pop.

But when she switched to Atlantic Records in the mid-1960s, producer Jerry Wexler knew just what to do with Franklin, putting her powerful voice in a setting that combined gospel, soul and rock and made her a superstar by letting "the lady wail." As Franklin put it in her autobiography, she "Aretha-ized" the music.

STRING OF HITS

Franklin's heyday extended into the early 1970s as she dominated the music charts with "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," "Baby, I Love You," "Chain of Fools," "Think," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Do-Right Woman" and "Respect," a cover of a Redding tune that became a song of empowerment during the civil rights era.

Franklin's popularity would fade but she had a revival in the mid-1980s with songs such as "Freeway of Love," a duet with George Michael named "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves," "Who's Zoomin' Who?" and a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

Along the way Franklin inspired a generation of singers.

"Pop music today is rich with glorious gospel voices and women singers in the mold cast by Aretha," the late Wexler said in his autobiography. "... Aretha became a model for people like Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Donna Summer, Whitney Houston... The list of her disciples is long."

Franklin was known to be shy, moody, imperious and difficult. She often did not get along with other women singers, including her sisters, could be quick to fire underlings and was erratic when it came to showing up for concerts and appointments.

Franklin often demanded she be paid in cash before performing and took her status as musical royalty seriously. In 2008 Beyonce introduced Tina Turner as "the queen" at the Grammy Awards ceremony, which Franklin decried as "a cheap shot" at her.

PREACHER'S DAUGHTER

Franklin was born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Detroit. Her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, was respected as a civil rights leader, an early advocate of "black pride" and a friend of King.

The Reverend Franklin was a charismatic figure but had also been arrested for drug possession and, under unexplained circumstances, his wife left him and their five children when Aretha was six. Four years later, Franklin's mother died and Aretha avoided discussing her parents publicly.

Franklin started touring as part of her father's gospel show as a teenager and got a musical education from gospel greats of the time - the Staple Singers, the Soul Stirrers, James Cleveland and The Mighty Clouds of Joy.

She also came to know jazz and R&B greats invited to the family home - Cooke, Art Tatum, Dinah Washington, Fats Domino and Bobby Bland.

By 17, she had given birth to two children and later had two other sons. First married to Ted White, who became her manager and publicly abused her, Franklin later married actor Glynn Turman in 1978 but they divorced in 1984.

Franklin, who was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, was the subject of a singing tribute at the February 2011 Grammy Awards ceremony and a Carnegie Hall tribute concert in early 2017. She did not attend either.

Franklin did not perform regularly for many years, partly because of an aversion to flying after a rough trip in 1982. Instead, she traveled in a customized bus. She often had to cancel shows for health reasons.

In February 2017, she said she would keep recording but retire from touring after a limited run of concerts marking a new album that year, "A Brand New Me," which featured her doing some of her biggest hits with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

She performed "Natural Woman" at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2015 in a tribute to songwriter Carole King, who wrote the song. Her last live performance was Nov. 7, 2017, for the Elton John AIDS Foundation gala.

"I feel very, very enriched and satisfied with respect to where my career came from and where it is now," Franklin told a Detroit television interviewer in 2017. "I'll be pretty much satisfied, but I'm not going to go anywhere and just sit down and do nothing. That wouldn't be good either."

President George W. Bush presented Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs DEAD AT 56

Steve Jobs -- the mega-genius who co-founded Apple Inc. -- has died ... reps for the company have confirmed.

Jobs was 56.

Jobs suffered a number of serious health issues over the years. In 2004, he announced he had a rare -- but treatable -- form of pancreatic cancer ... and had a tumor successfully removed from his pancreas later that year.

TMZ posted a picture of Jobs two days after he resigned as Apple's CEO in August, clearly showing a deterioration in his health.

In 2009, Jobs received a liver transplant after announcing his "health-related issues were more complex than I thought."

Jobs is survived by his wife, Laurene, and 4 children.

Source: http://www.tmz.com/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-dead/

Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple

Steve Jobs has announced in an open letter to Apple that he has resigned as CEO of Apple Inc. After undergoing a liver transplant followed by pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs said he could no longer fulfill his duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO.

Steve Jobs is 55 years old and has been on sick leave since January 17 this year. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant 2 years ago and multiple treatments.


Steve Jobs will be replaced by Tim Cook who is Apple's Chief Operating Officer-COO, and Apple’s senior vice president for Operations Jeff Williams will probably take over as COO.