Monty Hall (born August 25, 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba), birth name Monte Halparin, is a Canadian actor, singer and sportscaster but is best known for being the MC of popular American television game shows. He was the host of the long-running game show Let's Make a Deal from 1963 to 1986 and for a limited run in 1990.
Hall received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 24, 1973. On May 1988 the Government of Canada bestowed on him the prestigious Order of Canada for his humanitarian work in Canada and other nations of the world.
Because of his work on Let's Make a Deal, Hall's name is used in a popular probability puzzle known as the Monty Hall problem. He himself gave a pretty good explanation of the solution to that problem, and why the solution did not apply to the case of the actual show, in an interview with New York Times reporter John Tierney in 1991. Because Hall had control over the way the game progressed, he played on the psychology of the contestant.
Other uses
Players in role playing games refer to an easy challenge with massive rewards as a "Monty Haul".
A thought paradox based on Let's Make a Deal is named after him. In a letter to the American Statistician (August, 1975), Steve Selvin calls it the Monty Hall problem.
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