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Peter Tomarken

Peter David Tomarken (December 7, 1942 March 13, 2006) was an American television personality primarily known as the host of Press Your Luck.

Biography

Early life

Born in Olean, New York, Tomarken was the middle son of Barnet and Pearl Tomarken, who owned Dee’s Jewelry store in Olean. Barnet and Pearl moved the family to Beverly Hills, California in the early 1950s, and Peter graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1960. Tomarken graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in English and married his high school sweetheart, Dana, who was his first wife and later served on the Beverly Hills Board of Education from 1985 to 1993. He worked on the magazines Women's Wear Daily and Business Week in New York City during the late 1960s before moving back to California where he and Dana started a family and he began working at various advertising agencies, including Young & Rubicam.

Game show career

He later started his own advertising firm, which put him behind and in front of the camera for many commercials in the late 1970s. His agent then suggested that he should try his hand at game show hosting, to which Tomarken replied, "Why would I want to do that?" His agent said, "Because you work four days a month and get paid six figures!" After at least two failed pilots (both for NBC, "Rodeo Drive" in October 1980 and "Duel in the Daytime" in August 1981, both produced by Jay Wolpert), Tomarken got his first network job as host of Hit Man for NBC in January 1983, which lasted 13 weeks. Tomarken also briefly co-anchored a news show on the Playboy TV in New York City at the same time. Tomarken was then offered the hosting job for Press Your Luck, which he hosted for three seasons.

After Press Your Luck, Tomarken hosted Bargain Hunters for ABC. After a year hiatus, he returned to host Wipeout (which he also produced). He was slated to host Monopoly, however, not enough stations signed up to launch the show, and it was eventually aired as a weekly game show on ABC with a different host, Mike Reilly. Tomarken also hosted Paranoia for Fox Family Channel from April-May 2000.

Other work

Tomarken worked with GSN during its conception and early years in the mid to late-1990s and served as host for their evening interactive telephone games, Prime Games, which featured Decades and Race for the Numbers. He also appeared on several infomercials and acted in small roles, including on the TV show Ally McBeal, during that time. He semi-retired from television to work as a real estate agent. Tomarken hosted a documentary for GSN, Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal (which focused on winner Michael Larson), in March 2003. As part of the special, he hosted half of an episode of Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck which reunited the two contestants who competed against Michael Larson with Larson's brother, James, for a grudge match (Michael Larson had died in February 1999 of throat cancer).

Death

Tomarken, a private pilot, and his second wife, Kathleen, were killed when his Beechcraft Bonanza A36, N16JR, crashed a few hundred feet offshore in Santa Monica Bay during climb-out from the Santa Monica Airport in California on the morning of March 13, 2006.

The aircraft had engine trouble shortly after takeoff and attempted to turn back to the airport before crashing into Santa Monica Bay. Tomarken, who was a volunteer with Angel Flight West, a non-profit organization that provides free air transportation to needy medical patients, were enroute to San Diego to pick up a cancer patient who needed transportation to UCLA Medical Center for treatment.

Tomarken and his wife were buried in the same plot at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.