31 Facts About Monty Hall

Behind the scenes, Monty Hall carried on an active life of philanthropy.

Monty Hall was born as Monte Halparin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on August 25,1921, to Orthodox Jewish parents Maurice Harvey Halparin, who owned a slaughterhouse, and Rose.

Monty Hall was raised in Winnipeg's north end, where he attended Lord Selkirk School, and, later St John's High School.

Monty Hall graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba, where he majored in chemistry and zoology.

Monty Hall was sponsored through university by Max Freed, a local businessman who was a customer of his father.

Originally though, Monty Hall had hoped to go to medical school but was not admitted due to secret quotas restricting the number of Jewish students admitted.

Monty Hall briefly worked for the Canadian Wheat Board after graduating before deciding to pursue a full-time career in broadcasting.

Monty Hall moved to Toronto in 1946 and found a job with radio station CHUM, where management shortened his name to Hall and misspelled his first name as "Monty" on billboards, giving him the stage name "Monty Hall".

Monty Hall had several short-lived programmes on CBC Television after it was launched in 1952, but when they were cancelled and another program he had conceived of was taken away from him, Hall decided he had no future in Canadian television.

From 1956 to 1960, along with NBC Radio newsman Morgan Beatty, Monty Hall co-hosted the Saturday night segment of the NBC Radio Network weekend program Monitor from 8 pm until midnight.

Monty Hall succeeded Jack Narz as host of a game show called Video Village, which ran from 1960 to 1962 on CBS.

From 1961 to 1962, Monty Hall hosted its spinoff, Video Village Junior, which featured children.

Monty Hall was producer or executive producer of the show through most of its runs.

Besides Let's Make a Deal, the game show Split Second, which originally ran on ABC from 1972 to 1975 with Tom Kennedy as host, and again in syndication in 1986 with Monty Hall hosting that version, was the only other successful program from Hatos-Monty Hall Productions.

In 1979, Monty Hall hosted the only game show since Video Village which he did not produce, Goodson-Todman's All-New Beat the Clock.

Also, in 1979, Monty Hall made an appearance on the game show Password Plus as a game show contestant, followed by another week of appearances in August 1980.

Monty Hall appeared as himself on "The Promise Ring" episode of That '70s Show in 2001.

Monty Hall played the host of a beauty pageant who schemed to become "the world's most powerful game show host" in the Disney animated series American Dragon: Jake Long.

Monty Hall appeared on GSN Live on March 14,2008, and hosted a game of Let's Make a Deal for Good Morning America on August 18,2008, as part of Game Show Reunion week.

Monty Hall made appearances in 2010 and 2013 during the Brady run, and had been part of publicity photos in early 2017 to promote season nine.

Monty Hall spent much of his post-Deal days involved in philanthropic work.

Monty Hall's family says he was always going to telethons and helped raise close to $1 billion for charity in his lifetime.

Monty Hall received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 24,1973, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars in 2000, and in 2002, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Monty Hall was the recipient of the 2005 Ralph Edwards Service Award from Game Show Congress, in recognition of all the work the emcee-producer has done for charity through the years.

On October 13,2007, Monty Hall was one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Monty Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Monty Hall received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 Daytime Emmy Awards.

On September 28,1947, Monty Hall married Marilyn Doreen Plottel ; the two had been introduced by a mutual cousin, Norman Shnier, the previous year.

Monty Hall died from heart failure on September 30,2017, at his home in Beverly Hills a little over a month after his 96th birthday.

Monty Hall gave an explanation of the solution to that problem in an interview with The New York Times reporter John Tierney in 1991.

Monty Hall said he was not surprised at the experts' insistence that the probability was 1 out of 2.

The Monty Hall problem was mentioned in an episode of the first season of the television drama NUMB3RS, in the 2008 movie 21, in the television series Brooklyn Nine-Nine in the episode "Skyfire Chronicle", and in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.