Brayden Smith, a voracious reader and former captain of his quiz team in high school who produced a five-time ‘Jeopardy!’ Became champion at some of the last shows hosted by Alex Trebek passed away on February 5 in Las Vegas. He was 24.
The death of mr. Smith was confirmed in an online obituary. It did not name a cause of death. His mother, Deborah Smith, said on Twitter that her son had died “unexpectedly.”
According to her, Mr Smith achieved a lifelong dream through ‘Jeopardy!’ as a participant in some of the final shows that Mr. Trebek was presented before Mr. Trebek died in November at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer.
Mr. Smith has won more than six times five times and earned $ 115,798 and nicknamed Alex’s last grand champion, the obituary said. Smith said he was looking forward to taking part in the champions tournament against his ‘trivia idols’.
“‘Danger!’ is so much better than anything I could even imagine, ” Mr Smith said in a video released by ‘Jeopardy!’ last month. “Every moment since I was last in the studio, it was a moment I wanted to be there. return.”
Mr Smith said in the video that he had been touched by Trebek’s perseverance since the announcement of Mr. Trebek in March 2019 that he learned that he had stage 4 cancer in pancreas.
‘Now everyone knows he’s sick, and putting on a brave face and going there every day and continuing to give America and the world good cheer, especially this year, was proof of how great someone is. he was, ”Mr Smith said.
Mr. Trebek was clearly impressed with Smith’s knowledge of trivia, tell the other participants after one of mr. Smith’s win that they played well, but ‘you ran into Billy Buzz Saw – and he took no prisoners.’
Brayden Andrew Smith was born on September 6, 1996 in Henderson, Nev., The second of four sons of Scott and Deborah (Rudy) Smith.
At Liberty High School in Henderson, he was a semifinalist of the National Merit Scholar and led the Quiz Bowl team to runners-up from the state. For his excellent play, he earned a college scholarship.
He graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas last year with a degree in economics and plans to become a lawyer in the federal government. He recently studied at the Cato Institute in Washington as an intern and investigated criminal law reform.
“The JEOPARDIE! family is saddened by the tragic loss of Brayden Smith, ”the program said said on Twitter. “He was friendly, funny and absolutely brilliant.”
Jack Begg contributed research.