'Press Your Luck' Host Visited By Grim Whammy
A small plane accident has claimed the life of Peter Tomarken the wry, affable game show host who warned countless times not to Press Your Luck too far, lest you lose everything to those tiny, malicious red demons known as "Whammies":
Peter Tomarken — host of the hit 1980s game show "Press Your Luck" — and his wife were killed when their small plane crashed into Santa Monica Bay. A third person aboard the plane remains missing.
The plane was on a volunteer medical transport flight to San Diego to pick up a passenger who needed treatment at UCLA Medical Center.
The Beech A-36 went down 200 yards offshore about 9:35 am while apparently trying to return to Santa Monica Airport because of engine trouble.
As with any other celebrity death, look in the near future for two more game show hosts to meet untimely ends in order to complete the necessary trifecta, thereby successfully filling a diagonal line on that great Tic Tac Dough board in the sky.
