Five times “Jeopardy!” champion Brayden Smith has passed away unexpectedly, his mother said in a tweet on Friday.
Smith, 24, was hailed online as ‘Alex’s Last Great Champion’ and was one of the last contestants to previously appear on the show with host Alex Trebek. he died of pancreatic cancer in November.
“He was kind, funny and absolutely brilliant,” the show said on Twitter on Friday. Our deepest condolences go to the van Brayden family. He will be missed. ‘
In a video published by “Jeopardy!” earlier this year, Smith reflected on his five-day streak with the show. “I just wanted to stay there as long as possible. It’s a really great feeling to be on set, to be with smart, nice warm people and to be with Alex who has been kind of a mainstay in my life,” said he. .
Smith, a 2020 graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, had worked as an intern at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, researching criminal justice reform issues, according to an obituary to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He was a voracious reader and self-taught, a lover of knowledge and an advocate for justice. His room was bursting with books on political science, philosophy, economics and history, ”the obituary said.
His obituary stated that he played the saxophone and enjoyed musicians like Duke Ellington and Steely Dan, and was a fan of both classic and not-so-classic films. “He could explain the symbolism in Citizen Kane one minute and the comic timing in Dumb and Dumber the next,” the obituary said.
Smith was expected to compete in the show’s upcoming Tournament of Champions. He said in a video published by the show, “‘Jeopardy!’ is so much better than anything I could have even imagined. Every moment since I was last in the studio was a moment I wanted to get back there. ”
“I am really grateful for everything, all the opportunities that I had,” he said. “I’m just glad we were able to do it and I’m glad I was able to show what I was capable of.”
His mother, Debbie Smith, said on Twitter on Friday that she was grateful that her son could make his dream come true on Jeopardy. “The outpouring of love for Brayden is overwhelming. We cannot express how much your lovely comments comfort us in these painfully sad times,” she said.