Denton County Living Well Magazine Summer 2014 | Page 11

to me. Plus he had great views on mankind and our mistreatment of other people, and he was very intelligent.
Will you describe your sense of humor?
Impish … I can do dialects. I can tell jokes. I just like to poke
fun at some of the overly serious elements that come out of
society. I like to take the wind out of a lot of serious situations.
My wife thinks I do that too much. She says, “It’s hard to have
a serious conversation with you. You like to poke fun at things.”
How have you learned to negotiate boundaries between
yourself and hardcore Jeopardy! fans, who approach you
in public?
I don’t have to. I think people look at me as a friend. They
are very respectful. They will in passing say, “Hey, I’m a
big fan of your show.” We’ll shake hands. I say, “Thank you
very much. I’m glad to hear that.” Sometimes they’ll say,
“My mother’s a big fan.” I then say, “Tell her hi for me. Tell
her to keep watching because we need all the viewers that
we can get.”
I find that only on the rarest of occasions will somebody
go overboard and intrude into your space in a way that
makes you feel uncomfortable. However, 99% of the time
people are very polite and pleasant, because they sense that
I’m polite and pleasant also. Why wouldn’t you approach
me the same way?
Is there a spiritual aspect to your nature, which informs
the way you approach life?
Well, I try to emulate my wife who is very spiritual. She
keeps saying that I am also. Do I believe in a superior being?

I think I do, because I question how we got here. I find it hard
to believe that we just kind of materialized with no outside
influence.
Am I religious? No. Religions, to me, don’t seem to focus on
the fact that many of our beliefs are pretty much the same.
We believe in a God, being kind to our fellow man. I’m up on
spirituality. I’m up on the golden rule. Do unto others, as you
would have them do unto you. One of my credos has always
been, “It’s just as easy to be nice to someone as it is to be
nasty, and the rewards are far greater.”
What are your thoughts on aging?
I’m constantly the recipient of looks and headshaking when
people ask me my age. They say, “You’re in really good shape
for somebody who’s 73.” My mother is 92 and she’s in reasonably good shape. She’s never had a serious illness. I don’t look
my age. I haven’t had any plastic surgery. Every time I consider having it done, I think, “Well, I’ll retire from show business, so there’s no need to do it.”
Is there anything you wish that you could change about
yourself?
No. I kind of like the way I’ve been aging. There’s a point I
suppose where I wished I’d tried certain things in my life. But
all in all, everything’s good.
For more information or to donate to the charities Alex mentioned, visit worldvision.org, wonderwork.org and smiletrain.
org. Check your local listing for when and where Jeopardy!
airs in your market.

Photos courtesy
Denton County Living Well of Jeopardy! Productions Inc.
Magazine • Summer 2014

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