“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek passed away more than three years ago at age 80, but his memory lives on. This Monday, the United States Postal Service announced the release of his Forever stamp.
“The grid of 20 identical stamps resembles the array of video monitors that form the “Jeopardy!” game board,” said the USPS. These stamps include the prompt: “THIS NATURALIZED U.S. CITIZEN HOSTED THE QUIZ SHOW ‘JEOPARDY!’ FOR 37 SEASONS” in the style of prompts included on the long-running game show. Underneath, upside down, is the answer: “Who is Alex Trebek?”
Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, Trebek began hosting “Jeopardy!” during its first season in 1984 and went on to host more than 8,200 episodes, even setting a Guinness World Record, according to the show’s website. Before that, he hosted dozens of other game shows.
As the host of “Jeopardy!” he won seven Daytime Emmy awards for outstanding game show host and he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He battled pancreatic cancer from 2019 through his death in 2020, and continued filming episodes until October of that year as he received chemotherapy treatments. Those episodes ran through the Christmas season.
“During a November episode, one fan moved Trebek to tears when he used his remaining $2,000 to write ‘We love you Alex,’ sparking the trending #WeLoveYouAlex on social media,” Audacy reported at the time.
Former “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings and actress Mayim Bialik of “Blossom” and “The Big Bang Theory” began filling in for Trebek as his time at the show began to end. Jennings is now the permanent host of the show.
Trebek is survived by wife Jean Currivan Trebek and two children, Emily Trebek and Matthew Trebek. In 2021, the stage where “Jeopardy” is filmed was renamed The Alex Trebek stage. He has also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Now, the new Trebek stamps have a pane with category headers that appear at the top of each column of stamps, also a callback to the show. To the left, there is a photograph of Trebek with a portion of the “Jeopardy!” set behind him.
“Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps using photography provided by Sony Pictures Entertainment and hand lettering by Marti Davila,” said the USPS. These stamps were unveiled Monday during a ceremony in Culver City, Calif.