A Man of Value

 

Tom Bergeron was born of French Canadian and Irish descent in 1955. He became a popular radio DJ, playing comedy records along with music and offbeat interviews. One of his first jobs on television was as host of a local game show. Bergeron was always on the move. He landed in Boston's giant, WBZ radio, where he remained through the Eighties. His national television work in the Nineties lead to hosting duties of Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2004 for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host in 2000. Bergeron had already been host of America's Funniest Home Videos since 2001. He remained there for another fourteen years. He also overlapped duties as host for Dancing with the Stars from 2005 to 2019. Among this non-stop pace, Bergeron had time for acting, appearing on Star Trek: Enterprise and the mystery series, Castle, among others, sometimes as himself. Bergeron is destined to be in demand for many more years.

Television Talkers

 

Peter Marshall (Ralph Pierre LaCock 1926) is an actor, singer, TV host, and radio personality on television, movie, and Broadway. He is the brother of actress Joanne Dru (Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and All the King's Men).

Born into a show business family, he came by his Broadway credits and singing career naturally. By the 1950s Marshall earned his living in a comedy act with Tommy Noonan, appearing in nightclubs, on television variety shows, and in three forgettable films. The team attempted to capitalize on the popularity of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis with Noonan as Lewis to Marshall's Martin.

But he is best known to television viewers as the unflappable host of some 5,000 episodes of The Hollywood Squares from 1966 to 1981. When his tenure expired, Marshall continued as a game show host and actor in various television shows. For cable subscribers, Marshall, along with co-host, singer Debby Boone, was featured in a successful infomercial presented by Time Life, the Music of Your Life Collection. Featuring hit songs from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the infomercial was re-released in 2016. Marshall retired in 2021.