Merv Griffin, who died on 12 August, 2007, aged 82, was an American chat show host and creator of the popular game show, Wheel of Fortune.

As a TV producer he also devised Jeopardy!, a long-running trivia game show which has been broadcast around the world.

A regular face on American television during the 1960s, Mr Griffin became one of the richest TV entertainers in the US. He had begun his career as a singer, but in becoming involved in TV projects his success soon spiralled.

His involvement in the buying and selling of real estate during the 1980s also showed him to be an astute businessman and he returned to the show-business world one last time in 2001 releasing a musical album It’s Like a Dream.

Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr, was born on 6 July, 1925, in San Mateo, San Francisco. He made his singing debut as a teenager, appearing on the radio before going on tour with Freddy Martin’s orchestra as a big band vocalist.

His ability as a singer earned him enough to create his own record label, but also got him noticed by Hollywood studio Warner Bros.

Popular singer and actress Doris Day had seen Mr Griffin perform at a concert in Las Vegas and recommended that he be offered a role in an up-coming Warner Bros picture By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953).

It was a big break that never truly flourished and in time Mr Griffin turned his attention to becoming a popular TV host.

In 1958 he hosted the game show Play Your Hunch, and as a TV producer launched a number of successful shows

His eye for family entertainment was rarely ever bettered than when he produced Jeopardy! (1963), a trivia game show, that proved a hit in America for years to come.

Mr Griffin’s own game show host career was interrupted in 1965 when he was offered his own self-tilted talk show, The Merv Griffin Show, that attracted audiences of millions and proved a successful alternative to American talk show, The Tonight Show.

In the same year Jeopardy! was cancelled, he produced a literal money spinning replacement with Wheel of Fortune.

The show itself was produced by Mr Griffin’s own production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, which he later sold to Columbia Pictures Television for $250 million in 1987.

Having amassed a large fortune from his TV work, he invested some of his own money into real estate, purchasing a number of exclusive venues including the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

His business contacts included some of the most successful property entrepreneurs in the US, including Donald Trump from whom he purchased a $400 million island in the Bahamas.

In 1997, Mr Griffin was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. Successful treatment of the disease was enough to see him release one last solo album in 2001, before the cancer returned in July 2007, leading to his eventual death.