John Carpenter (born December 24, 1967) is an American game show contestant and Internal Revenue Service agent. He is the twelfth highest-earning American game show contestant of all time. Carpenter is best known for becoming the first top-prize winner on the American version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and the first ever top-prize winner in the entire Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise. He held the record for the largest single win in United States game show history, until it was broken by Rahim Oberholtzer who won $1.12 million on another U.S. quiz show, Twenty One. On the November 19, 1999, episode of Millionaire, Carpenter proceeded to advance to the million-dollar question without using any lifelines. He then used his Phone-a-Friend to call his father, not for help, but rather to tell him he was going to win the game. Carpenter answered the question correctly and became the show's first millionaire. His win gave him national recognition and led to multiple talk show appearances, as well as subsequent appearances on Millionaire. Career and family Carpenter was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. His father, Tom, worked as a computer program analyst for the Department of Veterans Affairs, while his mother, Gail, served as an administrative assistant for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. In 1986, he enrolled at Rutgers University and graduated in 1990 with a degree in economics. In January 1991, he joined the Internal Revenue Service after completing government exams and tests. In November 1996, Carpenter met his future wife, Deborah, who was studying for a master's degree at Southern Connecticut State University and worked as a manager of a Fleet Bank branch in New Haven. They married in August 1998. At the time of his appearance on Millionaire, he was 31 years old. When he revealed his profession as an IRS officer on Millionaire, Carpenter was playfully booed by the audience. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Carpenter was originally uninterested in Millionaire but eventually tuned in one night after dinner while having friends over at his house. When he found the show's higher-tier questions no more difficult than the lower-tier ones, he decided to call in to the show's hotline for a chance to become a contestant. Carpenter answered all of the hotline questions correctly and was on the show within two days. Host Regis Philbin described Carpenter as having "cruised right through those first fourteen questions,"