Arthur Fleming Fazzin was born on May 1, 1924, in New York City, to William and Marie Fazzin, immigrant dancers from Austria. He played football at James Monroe High School and later at Colgate and Cornell Universities, before serving as a Navy patrol bomber pilot during World War II. After his military service, he began a radio career, adopting the stage name “Art Fleming” while working in North Carolina, Ohio, and New York.

In 1953, Fleming joined NBC as a staff announcer and producer. In 1964, producer Merv Griffin selected him to host a new quiz show called Jeopardy! Fleming would go on to host the program’s original NBC daytime run from 1964 to 1975 and its 1974–1975 syndicated version, never missing a single taping across nearly 2,900 episodes.

After Jeopardy!‘s 1975 cancellation, Fleming returned to acting, appearing in films including MacArthur (1977) and Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), where he reprised his Jeopardy! host role. He briefly returned to host a 1978–1979 NBC revival of Jeopardy! and later hosted College Bowl for seven years on the radio. He died of pancreatic cancer on April 25, 1995, at his Florida home, just two weeks after his diagnosis.