Whatever happened to the former 2 hosts of the TV show, "Family Feud", Richard Dawson & Ray Combs?

Question

Did they both commit suicide?

Answer 1

Ray Combs did commit suicide, but Richard Dawson is living in
the Old Game Show Host Home in El Segundo, California.

;-)

Answer 2

Former Family Feud Hosts

Answer 3

Richard Dawson is living in Hawaii. He's well.
Ray Combs committed suicide.

Answer 4

Combs' dismissal from Feud was one of many events that ultimately led to his suicide in 1996. An automobile accident in 1994 nearly paralyzed him, while Combs went through financial problems after CaddyCombs, a comedy club he owned in Cincinnati, Ohio, went out of business after a dispute with his partner. He had also separated from his wife, Debbie, with whom he had six children. Several attempts to make it back into television—most notably as the host of the cable TV game show Family Challenge in 1995—all failed.

Distraught and despondent, Combs was admitted to the psychiatric ward of the Glendale, California Adventist Medical Center. There he used bedsheets to hang himself in a closet on June 2, 1996. Though having once made USD$6 million a year as the host of Family Feud, Combs died penniless at the age of 40. His family relied upon a $25,000 donation from Johnny Carson to pay for Combs' funeral expenses.

Dawson co-starred in the movie The Running Man in 1987, playing evil, egotistical, dark-sided game-show host Damon Killian. He hosted an unsold pilot for a revival of the classic game show You Bet Your Life in 1988. In 1994, Dawson returned to Family Feud for one season. He was considered for the current version of Family Feud, but elected not to host.

Dawson currently resides in Beverly Hills, California, with his wife since 1991, Gretchen (Johnson) Dawson, whom he met when she was a contestant on Family Feud in 1981. They have a daughter, Shannon Nicole Dawson (born in 1990). Richard also has three grandchildren: Lindsay Dors Dawson, Tyler Emm Dawson, and Emma Rose Dawson.

Answer 5

Richard Dawson is still living, but is reclusive. Ray Combs committed suicide.

Answer 6

Ray Combs committed suicide,as for Richard Dawson,i'm not sure about. Maybe someone else can
help you with that one.

Answer 7

Yes I've never seen such a coincidental celebrity death since Maclean Stevenson and Roger Bowen, who both played Henry Blake on M*A*S*H, died within 1 day of each other!

Answer 8

I liked the fat blonde guy. Now its that stupid guy from Home Inprovment.

Answer 9

richard dawson is still alive.

Richard Dawson (born November 20, 1932) is a British-born American actor, comedian, game show panelist and host. He is best known for his role as Corporal Peter Newkirk on the World War II situation comedy Hogan's Heroes and was the original host of the Family Feud game show from 1976-1985 on ABC and again in 1994. Dawson also appeared as a panelist on Gene Rayburn's revamped 1970s version of Match Game on CBS.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life to 1973
* 2 1973-1985
* 3 1985-present
* 4 Trivia
* 5 External links

[edit] Early life to 1973

Dawson was born in Gosport, England as Colin Emm. At the age of 14, he ran away from home to join the Merchant Marines, where he pursued a boxing career. Having married British sex symbol Diana Dors, Dawson moved to Los Angeles, California, where he gained fame in the hit show Hogan's Heroes as Cpl. Peter Newkirk. The war-related sitcom was one of the highest-rated shows on television during its six-year run from 1965 to 1971. Dawson and Dors eventually divorced, and Dawson gained custody of both their children, Gary and Mark. Immediately following the cancellation of Heroes, Dawson performed as a regular on the popular NBC variety show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In from 1972 to 1973, and would also be a regular on The New Dick Van Dyke Show from 1973 to 1974. Dawson also appeared as a panelist on the 1972-73 syndicated revival of I've Got a Secret.

[edit] 1973-1985

After Laugh-In left the airwaves in 1973, game show pioneer Mark Goodson signed Dawson to appear as a regular on Match Game '73. Dawson, who had already served a year as panelist for Goodson's revival of I've Got a Secret, proved to be a solid and funny gameplayer and was the frequent choice of contestants for the "Head-to-Head Match" portion of the show's bonus round, in which the contestant and Dawson had to obtain an exact match to the requested prompt.

In a classic episode of Match Game 77, he and fellow panelist, Debralee Scott revolted when their answer "Finishing School" did not match the answer "school" in the judges' mind; thus sparking the "Match Game '77 School Riot".

In 1975, Dawson was hired by Goodson to emcee an upcoming project entitled Family Feud which debuted in the summer of 1976 on ABC's daytime schedule. Unlike his flop in 1974 with Masquerade Party, Family Feud became a breakout hit (particularly the syndicated nighttime version), eventually surpassing the ratings of Match Game in late 1977. In 1978 he left Match Game but won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Game Show Host for his work on Family Feud. After Dawson became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1984, he showed his passport and photo during the introduction of an episode of Family Feud. He continued hosting the Feud until it was cancelled in 1985 and returned to the show in 1994-95, replacing Ray Combs.

In 1972, Dawson was featured as a panelist on the revival of I've Got a Secret.

[edit] 1985-present

Dawson co-starred in the movie The Running Man in 1987, playing evil, egotistical, dark-sided game-show host Damon Killian. He hosted an unsold pilot for a revival of the classic game show You Bet Your Life in 1988. In 1994, Dawson returned to Family Feud for one season. He was considered for the current version of Family Feud, but elected not to host.

Dawson currently resides in Beverly Hills, California, with his wife since 1991, Gretchen (Johnson) Dawson, whom he met when she was a contestant on Family Feud in 1981. They have a daughter, Shannon Nicole Dawson (born in 1990). Richard also has three grandchildren: Lindsay Dors Dawson, Tyler Emm Dawson, and Emma Rose Dawson.

[edit] Trivia

* Dawson had been friends with Bill Bixby since 1968, appearing on an episode of The Dating Game. Four years later, Bixby appeared with Dawson in a pilot of a game show that hasn't been aired, "Cop-Out," and two game shows such as: Password and Masquerade Party, where Bixby was the panelist and Dawson served as host.

* Both Dawson and former co-star Larry Hovis were ensemble players on "Laugh In".

* According to Werner Klemperer, Dawson and Bob Crane were like oil and water. Klemperer told "E Hollywood Story" that there, "was no love lost between the two".

* In 2006, Brett Somers smilingly told the Game Show Network (GSN) that many of the "Match Game" personnel were "relieved" when Dawson quit to host "Family Feud". Dawson was reportedly annoyed that a roulette wheel was added to select celebrities, as guest would choose him 3 to 1 over the other five panelists.


ray combs passed away

Ray Combs
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Ray Combs
Born April 3, 1956
Hamilton, Ohio
Died June 2, 1996
Glendale, California

Raymond Neil Combs, Jr. (April 3, 1956 – June 2, 1996) was an American television game show host and stand-up comedian, best known as the second host of Family Feud.

Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Combs ascended into the world of comedy after moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s and doing audience warmups for sitcoms. Johnny Carson noticed this and invited him to perform on The Tonight Show in 1986; the audience gave him a standing ovation his first time on stage, the first time in the show's history a comedian was given such an honor on his or her first appearance. He was soon given warm-up duties for the audience of the sitcom Amen. It was also during this time that Ray was a celebrity panelist on the John Davidson version of Hollywood Squares in 1987. His appearance was memorable for him leading the audience in singing a terrible rendition of the theme to The Brady Bunch.

In 1988, Mark Goodson and Executive Producer Howard Felsher selected Combs to host a new version of Family Feud, which aired concurrently on CBS beginning in July and in syndication beginning in September. Audiences initially accepted Combs' performance on Family Feud despite the inevitable comparisons to longtime host Richard Dawson. Combs also made a couple of appearances for the World Wrestling Federation, appearing as a guest ring announcer at WrestleMania VIII where he amused the capacity crowd at Indianapolis' Hoosier Dome by lashing into the team of the Nasty Boys, The Mountie and Repo Man with various scathing insults before being ultimately chased out of the ring. He later served as a guest commentator alongside Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan at Survivor Series 1993. These two appearances were also met with various WWF celebrity editions of Family Feud.

By 1993, however, the show's ratings were declining. CBS canceled the daytime version that year, and the syndicated version was also in danger of cancellation. Jonathan Goodson, who became chairman of Mark Goodson Productions after his father's death a year earlier, then made the decision to replace Combs with Richard Dawson. During the taping of his final episode, Combs can be seen walking off the set prior to the closing of the show during which he normally would have fun with the winning family.