Pat Sajak was born on October 26, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up on the city’s west side and attended Farragut High School before enrolling at Columbia College Chicago. There, he worked as a desk clerk at the Palmer House Hotel while studying broadcasting — a passion he had nurtured since watching Jack Paar on The Tonight Show as a child.

His career began in radio in the mid-1960s, before he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1968, where he served in Vietnam as a disc jockey for the Armed Forces Vietnam Network. After returning home, he worked as a DJ in Nashville and later became a weatherman at WSM-TV. By 1977, KNBC in Los Angeles had recruited him as their full-time on-air meteorologist.

It was in Los Angeles that Wheel of Fortune creator Merv Griffin spotted him. In 1981, Sajak joined the daytime edition of Wheel of Fortune on NBC, then took over the syndicated evening version in 1983. Alongside co-host Vanna White, he became a fixture in millions of American homes. He announced his retirement in June 2023 but returned for one final season of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, wrapping on June 10, 2025.