NEW YORK (AP) — Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster who skewered liberals and accused the government of lying about COVID-19 , has passed away. He was 83.

Mark Young, co-host and friend of Woolery’s podcast, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas in the presence of his wife, Kristen. “Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a wonderful man of faith. Life won’t be the same without him,” Young wrote.

Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty quips, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.

In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV’s “Love Connection,” for which he coined the phrase, “We’ll be back in two minutes and two seconds,” a two-finger signature called the “2 and two seconds.” 2.” In 1984 he presented the TV show ‘Scrabble’, which simultaneously presented two game shows on TV until 1990.

“Love Connection,” which aired long before the dawn of dating apps, had a premise in which a single man or a single woman would watch audition tapes of three potential partners and then pick one for a date.

A few weeks after the date, the dude sat with Woolery in front of a studio audience and told everyone about the date. The audience would vote for the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest’s choice, “Love Connection” would offer to pay for a second date.

Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite pair of lovebirds was a 91-year-old man and an 87-year-old woman. “She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, “I remember wagon trains.” The poor man. She took him on a hot air balloon ride.”

Other career highlights include hosting the shows “Lingo,” “Greed” and “The Chuck Woolery Show,” as well as hosting the short-lived syndicated revival of “The Dating Game” from 1998 to 2000 and an ill-fated talk show from 1991. . In 1992, he played himself in two episodes of the TV series ‘Melrose Place’.

Woolery became the subject of the Game Show Network’s first attempt at a reality show, “Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned”, which premiered in 2003. It shared the title of the 1968 pop song by Woolery and his rock group, the Avant-Garde. . It lasted six episodes and was panned by critics.

Woolery started his TV career on a show that has become a mainstay. Although most associated with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, “Wheel of Fortune” debuted on January 6, 1975 on NBC, where Woolery welcomed the contestants and audience. Woolery, then 33, was trying to make it as a singer in Nashville.

‘Wheel of Fortune’ started life as ‘Shopper’s Bazaar’, with Hangman-style puzzles and a roulette wheel. After Woolery appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” and sang “Delta Dawn”, Merv Griffin asked him to co-host the new show with Susan Stafford.

“I had an interview that went on to 15, 20 minutes,” Woolery told The New York Times in 2003. “After the show, when Merv asked if I wanted to do a game show, I thought, ‘Great, a guy with a bad jacket and an equally bad mustache who doesn’t care what you have to say – that’s the guy I want to be. ”

NBC initially passed, but they turned it into “Wheel of Fortune” and got the green light. After a few years, Woolery demanded a pay increase to $500,000 a year, or what host Peter Marshall earned on “Hollywood Squares.” Griffin declined and replaced Woolery with weather reporter Pat Sajak.

“Both Chuck and Susie did fine, and ‘Wheel’ did well enough on NBC, although it never approached the kind of ratings that ‘Jeopardy!’ achieved in its heyday,” Griffin said in “Merv: Making the Good Life Last,” a 2000s autobiography co-written by David Bender. Woolery earned an Emmy nod as host.

Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Woolery served in the U.S. Navy before attending college. He played double bass in a folk trio and then formed the psychedelic rock duo The Avant-Garde in 1967 while working as a truck driver to support himself as a musician.

The Avant-Garde, which toured in a converted Cadillac hearse, featured the Top 40 hit “Naturally Stoned,” as Woolery sang, “When I put my mind on you alone / I can get a good feeling / Feel like I am stoned by nature.”

After The Avant-Garde broke up, Woolery released his debut solo single “I’ve Been Wrong” in 1969 and several more singles with Columbia before transitioning to country music in the 1970s. He released two solo singles, “Forgive My Heart” and “Love Me, Love Me.”

Woolery wrote or co-wrote songs for himself and everyone from Pat Boone to Tammy Wynette. On Wynette’s 1971 album “We Sure Can Love Each Other,” Woolery wrote “The Joys of Being a Woman” with lyrics like “See our baby on the swing / Hear her laugh, hear her scream.”

After his TV career ended, Woolery turned to podcasting. In an interview with The New York Times, he called himself a gun rights activist and described himself as a conservative libertarian and constitutionalist. He said he had not revealed his politics in liberal Hollywood for fear of retaliation.

He teamed up with Mark Young for the “Blunt Force Truth” podcast in 2014 and quickly became a full-on supporter of Donald Trump, arguing that minorities don’t need civil rights and sparking a firestorm by tweeting an anti-Semitic comment that Soviet communists associated with Judaism.

“President Obama’s popularity is a fantasy held only by him and his dwindling legion of juice-drinking, anxious-dog-hugging, safe-space-hiding snowflakes,” he said.

Woolery was also active online, retweeting articles from Conservative Brief, emphasizing that the Democrats were trying to install a system of Marxism and spreading headlines such as “Impeach him! Devastating photo of Joe Biden leaks.”

During the early stages of the pandemic, Woolery initially accused medical professionals and Democrats of lying about the virus in an effort to hurt the economy and Trump’s chances for re-election as president.

“The most outrageous lies are those about COVID-19. Everyone lies. The CDC, the media, the Democrats, our doctors, not all, but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and preventing the economy from coming back, and that’s about the election. I’m tired of it,” Woolery wrote in July 2020.

Trump retweeted that message to his 83 million followers. By the end of the month, nearly 4.5 million Americans had been infected with COVID-19 and more than 150,000 had died.

Just days later, Woolery changed his position and announced that his son had contracted COVID-19. “To further clarify and add perspective, COVID-19 is real and it is here. My son tested positive for the virus, and I sympathize with those who are suffering and especially those who have lost loved ones,” Woolery posted before his account was deleted.

Woolery later explained on his podcast that he never called COVID-19 “a hoax” or said “it’s not real,” only that “we were lied to.” Woolery also said it was “an honor that your president retweeted what your thoughts are and thought it was important enough to do so.”

In addition to his wife, Woolery is survived by his sons Michael and Sean and his daughter Melissa, Young said.

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Mark Kennedy is present http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits.