Jay Stewart - Later Work, Decline and Death

Later Work, Decline and Death

In late 1981, Stewart's daughter Jamie committed suicide. During this time, he took a year-and-a-half respite from announcing and found religion, appearing on The 700 Club to proclaim his newfound faith, which led to him doing voiceover promos for host Pat Robertson's CBN Cable. He returned to the game show arena in 1983 as the announcer of Sale of the Century, which he held for five years. Stewart also co-hosted with Jim Perry for a week around late 1983, when then-hostess Lee Menning was on maternity leave, and participated in several Instant Bargains during the course of his tenure on Sale. In 1983, Stewart announced for a pilot of the revival of Jeopardy! hosted by Alex Trebek, but the job eventually went to Johnny Gilbert, who announced for a later pilot and all subsequent episodes.

Stewart could not overcome the pain of his daughter's death and turned increasingly to alcohol, which ultimately led to his departure from $ale of the Century in January 1988. During this time, he moved into the managerial field; one of his clients was Harry Stevens, who announced the syndicated version of Finders Keepers and the 1989 version of Pictionary.

Stewart committed suicide by shooting himself in the carport of his home on September 17, 1989, as the result of severe depression; he had also suffered from chronic, intractable back pain for years, reportedly due to frequent heavy lifting during his work on Let's Make a Deal (Stewart had to carry prize display tables to and from the audience area whenever a game on Let's Make a Deal called for them; he would bring out the prizes, announce them, then take them back offstage when done).