Peter Marshall, Longtime Host of The Hollywood Squares, Dies at 98 of Kidney Failure

Peter Marshall, best known as the original host of The Hollywood Squares, has died. He was 98.

Marshall died on Thursday, Aug. 15 of kidney failure at his home in Encino, Calif., his publicist Harlan Boll told The Associated Press, and his wife Laurie said, per Variety.

Born Ralph Pierre LaCock in Huntington, W.V., Marshall was known for hosting the Emmy Award-winning hit game show. He served as the host of more than 5,000 episodes from 1966 to 1980. Along with the NBC series, he also hosted a syndicated nighttime version of the show from 1971 to 1981.

He first began his career at 15 years old and worked as an NBC Radio page and usher at Paramount Theater in Times Square. Soon after, Marshall was drafted into the Army in 1944, and during his tenure, he hosted for Armed Forces Radio. 

After the war in 1949, he formed a comedy duo with Tommy Noonan, and the pair made appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, as well as theaters and nightclubs. Throughout the next decade, he became a movie contract player at Twentieth Century Fox, and had roles in films including 1959's The Rookie (1959), Swingin’ Along (1961), Ensign Pulver (1964) and The Cavern (1964).

He also starred on the stage and notably starred opposite the late Chita Rivera in London’s West End production of Bye Bye Birdie in 1962. Three years later, he made his Broadway debut in Skyscraper with Julie Harris in 1965; he also performed in High Button Shoes, Anything Goes, The Music Man and 42nd Street.

Two years later, he was offered the Hollywood Squares hosting job. The popular show -

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featured a star-studded, tic-tac-toe match with nine celebrity guests and two contestants. The NBC series regularly featured Paul Lynde, Joan Rivers, Rich Little, Rose Marie, George Gobel and Wally Cox as panelists.

“It was the easiest thing I've ever done in show business,” Marshall said in a 2010 interview for the Archive of American Television. “I walked in, said ‘Hello stars,' I read questions and laughed. And it paid very well.”

After the show came to a conclusion in 1980, the renowned host lent his hosting abilities to The Peter Marshall Variety Show, Big Bands from Disneyland, All-Star Blitz and Yahtzee. Along with hosting, he also continued his career as a singing actor, he performed in Annie (1983) as Bert Healy and starred as Georges in La Cage Aux Folles in over 800 performances on both Broadway and on tour.

In his retirement, he told his hometown paper, The Herald-Dispatch, in 2013: “I am a singer first, I am not a game show host.” Noting, “That was just a freak opportunity. I had been on Broadway with Julie Harris and was going back to Broadway when I did the audition, and I thought it was a few weeks but that turned into 16 years.”

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He is survived by his wife, daughters Suzanne Browning and Jaime Dimarco, and son Chicago Cubs player Pete LaCock, as well as 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son David.

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