Two years after he was replaced as the host of Family Feud, 40-year-old Ray Combs was found hanging from his hospital bed sheets while on a psychiatric hold.
Wikimedia CommonsRay Combs served as the host of Family Feud from 1988 to 1994.
In 1988, Ray Combs rose to fame as the new host of Family Feud. The game show had become popular in the ’70s under its original host, Richard Dawson, but Combs promised to bring a fresh sense of humor and liveliness to the revival.
Onscreen, Combs seemed to have it all. He was young, handsome, and funny, and the show initially did well with Combs at the helm. But by the early ’90s, ratings had started to drop. In 1994, producers decided to bring Dawson back as the host in an effort to revive interest, and Combs had trouble finding another job.
Soon after taping his final episode, Combs was seriously injured in a car crash that left him in constant pain. Due to financial troubles, he had to close his two comedy clubs, and he separated from his wife of 18 years in 1995.
His dream life was falling apart — and it would soon come to a tragic end.
From Furniture Salesman To Beloved Game Show Host
Raymond Neil Combs Jr. was born in Ohio in April 1956, and he had a passion for entertainment from a young age. He acted in high school, but after graduating, he decided to delay his dreams to serve a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Shortly after returning to his home state, Combs started performing stand-up comedy at various clubs after working his day job as a furniture salesman. But by 1982, he was tired of life in the Midwest. He decided to move his family to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.
Combs soon landed a job doing audience warm-ups for sitcoms like The Golden Girls, entertaining the live crowds before tapings. He became so popular that Johnny Carson invited him to appear on The Tonight Show in 1986.
YouTubeRay Combs received a standing ovation after his stand-up performance on The Tonight Show in 1986.
That evening, Combs told the crowd, “This is the greatest week of my life… My entire life, I always had a dream that someday I’d be able to walk out on this show and make people laugh, and tonight you made that dream come true. Thank you and goodnight.”
It proved to be the career breakthrough he needed. Over the next two years, Combs was cast in small roles on various television shows and even a movie starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Then, in 1988, he was asked to host the revival of Family Feud.
Ray Combs’ Fall From Fame
Family Feud had originally run from 1976 to 1985 with Richard Dawson as the host, but when CBS picked it up in 1988, producers decided to make Combs the new face of the game show. Ratings were high for the first few years, but in 1992, they began to plummet. Dawson was asked to return, and Combs filmed his last episode in the spring of 1994.
When a contestant failed to score any points in the final round on Combs’ last day of taping, told him, “You know, I’ve done this show for six years, and this could be the first time that I had a person that actually got no points, and I think it’s a damn fine way to go out. Thought I was a loser ’til you walked up here, and you made me feel like a man.”
After filming wrapped, Combs reportedly walked out of the studio without saying goodbye to anyone.
Chaves08/Wikimedia CommonsRay Combs in 1994, during his last season of Family Feud.
A couple of months later, he was injured in a car crash on the Ventura Freeway. A police officer had to resuscitate him at the scene, according to a July 1994 report in the Los Angeles Times. Combs had suffered a spinal disc injury that left him temporarily paralyzed, and while he eventually regained movement in his legs, he experienced pain for the rest of his life.
Things continued to go downhill for Combs following the accident. He taped a pilot episode for his own talk show, The Ray Combs Show, but no networks picked it up. And while he found work appearing on Game Show Network and briefly hosting Family Challenge, these jobs weren’t nearly as lucrative as Family Feud had been. Combs had to sell two of his comedy clubs, and the bank foreclosed on one of his homes.
Combs’ marriage was struggling, too, and he and his wife separated in late 1995. By the following year, Ray Combs was feeling completely hopeless. With no money, no career, and a failed relationship, he decided to take his own life.
The Tragic Death Of Ray Combs
On June 1, 1996, the police were dispatched to Combs’ home in Glendale, California, to carry out a welfare check. Earlier that day, he’d visited a friend “in a rage” and told him that he was going to go home “to hurt his wife and destroy the place,” as reported by the Los Angeles Times at the time.
The friend had called 911, and as Sgt. Rick Young told the newspaper, “When the officers arrived, they contacted Mr. Combs at the front door. He was bleeding from the head and told them that he had hit his head accidentally on the hot tub.”
FindaGraveRay Combs was buried in his hometown of Hamilton, Ohio.
In reality, Combs had attempted suicide twice in the days leading up to the incident, and he’d injured himself by banging his head on the walls of his house. The police decided to place Combs on a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation hold at a local hospital, and he was admitted later that evening.
Then, early on the morning of June 2, nurses found Combs hanging from a makeshift noose in a closet in his hospital room. He was just 40 years old, and he left behind his estranged wife and six children.
A life that had once held such promise had come to a sad and startling end.
After reading about the life and death of Ray Combs, go inside the story of Charles Van Doren and his quiz show scandals. Then, learn about the serial killer who appeared on The Dating Game.
