Wink Martindale had all the love and support from his wife, Sandra “Sandy” Martindale (née Ferra), throughout most of his television career. And after decades in showbiz, the late 91-year-old game show host died in April 2025, reportedly after battling lymphoma.. He was surrounded by his family, according to multiple outlets.
Learn about Martindale’s marriage to his wife and his ex-wife in addition to his children below.
Martindale was famous for hosting multiple game shows from the 1970s through the 1990s. He was the face of Gambit from 1972 to 1976, and a second time from 1980 to 1981, Tic-Tac-Dough from 1978 to 1985, High Rollers in 1987 and 1988 and Debt from 1996 to 1998.
After moving on from the game show genre, Martindale published his memoir, Winking at Life, in 2000. In the book, he opened up about his growth as a game show host and television personality.
“I love working with contestants, interacting with the audience and to a degree, watching lives change,” he wrote in one excerpt. “Winning a lot of cash can cause that to happen.”
Since Martindale was also a DJ, a radio personality and a TV producer, he noted in his memoir that he “could easily have thought, ‘Wow, this is easy! I come out here, go on radio and TV, make a record and everybody wants to buy it!”
“Even if I entertained such thoughts, they soon dissipated,” Martindale acknowledged, before adding, “I learned in due time that what had happened to me was far from the ordinary.”
