Mike Bongiorno, born in New York in 1924 and Italian TV's most well-known face died of a heart attack Tuesday in Monte Carlo.
He came back to his native Turin after spending his childhood years in New York and was used as a messenger courrier during the second World War between the Allies and the Resistance. He risked his life during that period and was even due to stand in front of the Gestapo firing squad - saved only because he had an American passport.
Later on he introduced the quiz show to Italy on public broadcaster RAI in the 1950s and was later a stalwart on media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's private Mediaset network, continuing to start all his shows with his trademark greeting 'Allegria!' (Cheers!). Italian Premier Berlusconi was among the first to pay tribute to the New York-born Buongiorno, calling him ''a friend and a great protagonist of Italian TV history''.
''Mamma Mia, is it true,'' Berlusconi exclaimed, saying he had spoken to the entertainer a few days ago, when he sounded ''in spectacular form''.Bongiorno had recently been preparing a much-trumpeted quiz show for Sky Italia after Berlusconi's Mediaset network failed to renew his contract.
The entertainer is perhaps best-known for RAI's 1955-1959 Lascia o Raddoppia, the Italian version of The $64,000 Question, which became one of the most popular Italian shows ever.
But he set a record with Rischiatutto from 1970-'74, a version of Jeopardy!, attracting a never-equalled 20-30 million viewers every Thursday night.
Starting in 1963, Bongiorno hosted 11 editions of the Sanremo song festival. He moved to the fledgling Berlusconi network in 1980 and is credited with a key role in its success with a string of shows culminating in La Ruota della Fortuna (Wheel of Fortune) from 1989 to 2003.
Sky Italia, owned by Berlusconi's domestic rival Rupert Murdoch, recently began an ad blitz for Bongiorno's upcoming return, a show called Riskytutto modelled on his old hit and billed as ''The quiz to beat all quizzes''.
His impact on Italian popular culture was explored by semiotician and philosopher Umberto Eco, author of worldwide bestseller the Name of the Rose, in a famous 1963 essay called The Phenomonology of Mike Bongiorno.
Bongiorno himself received an honorary degree from a Milan university in 2007. Bongiorno had been in virtual retirement after his Mediaset contract lapsed, apart from popular mobile phone ads with showman Fiorello, half his age.
Berlusconi denied he had fallen out with Bongiorno over the contract renewal, saying it was ''a misunderstanding with some people at Mediaset''.
The premier said Bongiorno had one remaining dream, to become a Senator, and ''I had started working on (this)''.
Tributes also came from Juventus soccer club, which Bongiorno supported, and from long-time RAI host Pippo Baudo, who called his predecessor ''my reference point''.
Sky Italia did not say whether Riskytutto would go ahead.
