Peter Tomarken

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Peter Tomarken, seen here emceeing the popular game show, Press Your Luck.

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

Born in Olean, New York, Tomarken was the middle son of Barnet and Pearl Tomarken. Barnet and Pearl owned Dee’s Jewelry store in Olean. When Barnet died in 1957, Pearl moved the family to California. Peter was 15 at the time. Tomarken graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in English and married his high school sweetheart, Dana, who was his first wife. 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. 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) 3 failed pilots, 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, so he had to commute from coast to coast. Tomarken was then offered the hosting job for Bill Carruthers' Press Your Luck, a revival of the short-lived Second Chance, which had aired on ABC in 1977.

After Press Your Luck, Tomarken hosted the short-lived 1987 game show Bargain Hunters, an unsuccessful clone of The Price Is Right, for ABC. After a short hiatus, he returned to host Wipeout (which he produced with his son) and was slated to host Monopoly. Merv Griffin even produced a pilot featuring Tomarken as the host; 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, former Jeopardy! contestant Mike Reilly. Tomarken later hosted the big money game show Paranoia for Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family) from April-May 2000.

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 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 controversial winner Michael Larson), in 2003. The documentary was GSN's highest rated show ever. As part of the special, he hosted half of a special episode of Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck which reunited the 2 contestants who competed against Michael Larson with Larson's brother, James, for a grudge match.

Plane crash

Tomarken, a private pilot, and his second wife, Kathleen Bradley, were killed when his Beechcraft Bonanza A36, N16JR [link], 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 Los Angeles Times offers pictures of the aircraft and reported [link] that according to the FAA, the aircraft had engine trouble shortly after takeoff and attempted to turn back to the airport before crashing into the bay. A spokesman with Angel Flight West, a nonprofit that provides free air transportation to needy medical patients, says that Tomarken was an organization volunteer pilot. He and his wife were flying to San Diego to pick up a passenger who needed treatment at UCLA Medical Center.

FlightAware shows the flight map and tracking information [link] as well as the radar track log [link] for the short flight.

Peter and Kathleen are both buried in the same plot at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, CA.

External links

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