Another ABC show, Rhyme and Reason, had poetry as a premise. In 1971, he started as a featured panelist on To Tell the Truth, which led to his being hired for The Match Game when Goodson-Todman Productions revived it two years later. He also served as panelist in 1968 on the syndicated version of What's My Line? Producer Bob Stewart featured him regularly as a panelist on Pyramid throughout its 1970s and 1980s runs. He hosted two revivals of Jack Barry and Dan Enright's Juvenile Jury for BET from 1983 to 1984, then again for syndication from 1989 to 1991. In 1983, Russell hosted a pilot game show on CBS called Star Words. Three pilots were recorded in June of that year but the show was not picked up. In 1985, he hosted the short-lived NBC game show Your Number's Up, which was produced by Sande Stewart. Later career and death During the 1990s, Russell gained popularity with a new generation of television viewers as a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Russell often appeared during comedy sketches between scheduled guests and delivered his trademark rhymes. Russell's final TV appearance was as a panelist on a game show–themed week on the final season of the Tom Bergeron version of Hollywood Squares in 2003. Russell died on October 2, 2005, at the age 87 in New York City, of cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean. References External links 1918 births 2005 deaths African-American male actors African-American male comedians American male comedians American male dancers American game show hosts American male film actors American male poets American male stage actors American male television actors United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army officers Deaths from stomach cancer People from Atlanta Deaths from cancer in New York (state) African-American male dancers African-American dancers African-American game show hosts African-American poets African-American United States Army personnel 20th-century American poets 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American dancers 20th-century American male actors 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American people African-American male writers African Americans in World War II Comedians from Georgia (U.S. state)