Allen Ludden (October 5, 1918 – June 9, 1981) was an American television presenter and game show host. He was born Allen Ellsworth in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The surname Ludden was his stepfather's.

Ludden hosted many game shows, including the GE College Bowl, but he was most famous for hosting both the daytime and primetime versions of Password on CBS and ABC from 1961 to 1975. He started hosting a daytime version of the game, Password Plus on NBC, in 1979, but illness forced him off the show in 1980.

Ludden, a Roman Catholic, was a widower with three children – his wife, the former Margaret McGloin, had died from cancer in 1961 – when he proposed to the twice-divorced Betty White, whom he had met on Password, at least twice before she accepted, and they were happily married from June 14, 1963 until Ludden's death. They appeared together in an episode of The Odd Couple featuring Felix's and Oscar's appearance on Password.

He received the 1961 Horatio Alger Award.

At the time of his death, aged 62, he was ill from complications of cancer treatment.

He was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to his widow's star.

In 2001, TV Guide named Ludden the greatest game-show host of all time.

External links

• Allen Ludden's biography

1917 births | 1981 deaths | Cancer deaths | Entertainers who died in their 60s | Game show hosts | Game show panelists | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Match Game panelists | People from Wisconsin | People from Corpus Christi, Texas | To Tell the Truth panelists