Richard Dawson, the longtime host of Family Feud, lost his cancer battle over the weekend. Dawson’s son Gary confirmed his father passed away Sunday evening at Los Angeles’ Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after battling esophageal cancer. He was 79.
"It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my father passed away this evening from complications due to esophageal cancer. He was surrounded by his family,” Gary Dawson wrote on Facebook.
"He was an amazing talent, a loving husband, a great dad, and a doting grandfather," he added. "He will be missed but always remembered..."
Before his hosting gig on Family Feud, Dawson rose to fame as Cpl. Peter Newkirk on the CBS comedy Hogan’s Heroes. He joined Family Feud in 1976 and remained with the show until 1985. He returned to host one more season in 1994. Dawson was also a regular panelist on Match Game.
In addition to wife Gretchen Johnson and their daughter Shannon, Dawson is survived by two sons from his first marriage to Diana Dors.
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