Jay Stewart
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Jay Stewart (real name Jay Fixx, September 6, 1918 - September 17, 1989), was an American television and radio announcer most famous as the announcer on Let's Make a Deal and in the 1980s of Sale of the Century. Stewart was also the primary announcer for all Barry & Enright game shows from 1977 until 1981, including The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough.
In 1981, after leaving Barry & Enright Productions, Stewart had a brief run as announcer on Jim Perry's Card Sharks. In 1982, Stewart became the announcer of Sale of the Century, where Stewart perform for five years. Stewart also co-hosted with Perry around late 1983, when then-hostess Lee Menning was on maternity leave. He participated in several Instant Bargains during the course of his tenure on Sale.
In 1983 Stewart announced for a pilot of the revival of Jeopardy! hosted by Alex Trebek, but the job eventually went to Johnny Gilbert, who announced for a later pilot and all subsequent episodes.
Stewart announced the first two seasons of Scrabble. The last show he announced was for the final week of the game show Blackout in April of 1988.
In between his stints with Barry & Enright and Reg Grundy Productions, Stewart was the voice-over for the National Enquirer commercials, which he continued to do until around 1986.
In addition to his game show and commercial work, Stewart was also one of the hosts for Town Hall Party, a Los Angeles-based country music program airing from 1952 to 1961 and carried by KFI radio and KTTV-TV television. He was also an announcer for The Mike Douglas Show when production moved to Los Angeles in the late-1970s.
Stewart committed suicide on September 17, 1989, at the age of 71, as the result of severe depression. He had suffered from chronic back pain for years and never overcame the sudden death of his daughter months before.