Game show host, actor Richard Dawson dead at 79

Richard Dawson brings style, unashamedly gorgeous touchy-feely of the TV game show host of "Family Feud."

British-born entertainer, who died Saturday at age 79 from complications related to esophageal cancer, previously made a mark in the 1960 hit comedy impossible situation "Hogan's Heroes", which may be mined laughs from Nazi POW camp inmates deceive their captors and run the place itself.

But that kiss, wisecracking host of the quiz show "feud" he remembers.

The show first ran 1976-1985, some families pitted against each other they try to guess the most popular answers to survey questions as "What do people give up when they go on a diet? "

The Dawson made her warm, soaring expression of the phrase "Survey says ..." a national catchphrase among fans of the show.

He won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1978 as the best game show host. Tom flakes of The Washington Post called it "a friend to talk the fastest, lightest and most beguilingly pot since the late great Groucho jokes and parried in the 'Be Your Life." Show was so popular it was released the same day and night syndicated version.

And quickly has been demonstrated by "Saturday Night Live," with Bill Murray in a satirical tribute to Dawson as a figure, glancing slap ugly that even the contestants (John Belushi) to be too fresh.

Not everyone agreed.

In a classic 1981 analysis of culture "in the Context of No Context," George WS Trust recognized "the important moments in television history" as a time when Dawson asked her contestants "guess what a poll of 100 people is the height of the women thought the average American.

"Guess what they had expected," sniffed believe, harping on the meaninglessness of such companies. "Guess what they had expected on average."

Obviously, the "feud" fans believe feuded with indifference.

For one thing, Dawson played a show, and job leads, for a laugh.

In one episode, he put the question to participants: "During what month pregnant woman starts to look pregnant?"

He cried out "September", then, later, realized that it was a silly response.

All the better to Dawson, who could not stop laughing or milking cows at this time to continue to laugh from the audience.

His overbearing, arrogant way (and the British Working-block accents) makes it different from other quizmasters TV, which, more often than not, any noise from the trend may head smooth challenging. Not Dawson, overt physical attack prone contestants private space companies - and especially women, which he kissed each one exception.

Time to show bowed in 1985, executive producer Howard Felsher estimated that Dawson had been kissed "somewhere around 20,000."

"I kiss them for luck and love, that's all," Dawson said at the time.

He kissed one of them was Gretchen Johnson, an attractive young participants to the members of his family in 1981. He and Dawson started dating, and after a decade together, they married in 1991. (Dawson is survived by his daughter Gretchen and Shannon, and two sons, Mark and Gary, from his first marriage, and four grandchildren.)

Producers of the show was revived as "The New Family Feud," starring comedian Ray Combs, in 1988. Six years later, Combs Dawson replaced the power, but it only lasted one season. Steve Harvey is the current host.

The Dawson reprized the character in the game shows a much better condition at the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man," plays host to turn off a TV show set in a totalitarian future in which inmates try to escape as their executioners stalk them.

But long before the "feud," Dawson has gained popularity as a fast-talking Cpl. Peter Newkirk on "Hogan's Heroes," set CBS comedy starring Bob Crane in World War II. Show made the top 10 in his first season, 1965-1966, and aired until 1971.

"We run six years," Dawson once quipped, "one year longer than Hitler."

Dawson was born in 1932 Colin Lionel Emm in Gosport, England. When he was 14 he joined the Merchant Marines, serving three years.

He first entered show business as a standup comedian, playing clubs in the West End of London at the legendary Stork Room. It was there, in the late 1950s, he met Diana DORS blond bomb, the film star who became known as the British answer to Marilyn Monroe. They married in 1959 and divorced a decade later.

Dawson landed the role of humor in the U.S. and various events in the early 1960s, including "Steve Allen Show" and after his performance as a military prisoner in "The Dick Van Dyke Show." 1965 film "King Rat" which led to its cast are in the "Hogan Heroes", which really makes it a star with American audiences.

After that, he was a regular on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh" and "The New Dick Van Dyke Show."

In the meantime, he became a frequent participant in a celebrity game show, including the day and prime-time version of "The Match Game."

When I was a panelist on "Match Game," he began "Family Feud", in which fame grew to the level that he is mentioned as a front-runner for winning "Tonight Show" host chair as a successor to Johnny Carson, who at that time considered retirement. Although Carson stayed put, Dawson login appearances as guest host.

In 1985, Dawson finished length of "Family Feud" run, the studio audience honored with a standing ovation, and he replied: "Please sit down for at least 30 minutes of fun and laughter, and made me. wanted to scream. "

"I have the most incredible luck in my career," he told the audience, adding, "I never dreamed I would have a job that many people can handle me and I can touch them" That triggered a laugh, because he must know this:. host a good lover and a scamp.