Five times “Jeopardy!” champion Brayden Smith died unexpectedly, his mother said in a tweet on Friday.
Smith, 24, was praised online as “Alex’s Last Great Champion” and was one of the last contestants to appear on the show with host Alex Trebek before he died pancreatic cancer in November.
“He was kind, funny and absolutely brilliant,” said the program on Twitter on Friday. “Our deepest condolences go out to the Brayden family. He will be missed.”
In a video published by “Jeopardy!” earlier this year, Smith reflected in his five-day streak with the show. “I just wanted to stay there as long as possible. It’s really a great feeling to be on set, to be around smart and nice people and to be around Alex, who has been kind of a mainstay in my life,” he said.
Smith, graduated in 2020 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, worked as an intern at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, where he researched criminal justice reform issues, according to an obituary provided to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “He was a voracious and self-taught reader, a lover of knowledge and an advocate for justice. His office was filled with books on political science, philosophy, economics and history,” said the obituary.
His obituary said he played the saxophone and liked musicians like Duke Ellington and Steely Dan, as well as being a fan of classic and not-so-classic films. “He could be explaining the symbolism in Citizen Kane in one moment and the pace of the comedy in Dumb and Dumber the next,” said the obituary.
Smith was expected to compete in the show’s next Tournament of Champions. He said in a video published by the program, “‘Jeopardy!’ it is much better than anything I could have imagined. Every moment since the last time I was in the live studio has been a moment that I want to go back to. “
“I am very grateful for everything, all the opportunities I have had,” he said. “I am happy that we were able to do that and I am happy that I was able to show what I am capable of.”
His mother, Debbie Smith, said on Twitter on Friday that she was grateful that her son was able to live his dream on Jeopardy. “The display of love for Brayden is overwhelming. We cannot express how much his beautiful comments are comforting us during this painfully sad moment,” she said.