Alex Trebek Mural

On the north side of downtown Sudbury, looking across MacKenzie Street towards the public library as if from one fount of knowledge to another, gazing at passersby as if judging how well they can recall potent potables and common bonds, is a mural of Sudbury-born game show host Alex Trebek. Completed in 2021, the three-story painting graces a corner of Trebek’s alma mater, Sudbury Secondary School, and captures the longtime Jeopardy! host in his hirsute 1970s glory, surrounded by an era-appropriate design.

After being a fixture on Canadians’ cathode-ray tube TV screens for nearly a decade—most notably hosting the high school quiz show Reach for the Top—Trebek’s star seemed set to rise when he was shortlisted to host Canadian sports institution Hockey Night in Canada in 1971. As it happened, TV bigwig Ted Hough kiboshed the notion of Trebek hosting that program, reportedly saying, “We’re not hiring him. We don’t hire guys with mustaches!”

With that, Trebek and his mustache pulled up stakes and headed to Los Angeles, where he presented several game shows over the next decade. After landing his Jeopardy! hosting role in 1984—a position he would hold until 2020, shortly before his death—Trebek was on his way to becoming an icon in United States popular culture, the greatest achievement a Canadian can attain and the most valid reason for someone to create a mural of you (that, and having a solid, solid moustache).

Indeed, it was reason enough for Montreal-born muralist Kevin Ledo to create the work for Sudbury’s annual Up Here Festival, when artists visit in August to paint new murals across the Nickel City. Ledo, in turn, has brought his talents to cities around the world, creating murals of Leonard Cohen in Montreal, Rosa Parks in Detroit, and David Suzuki in Toronto, among others.