Burns Cameron

Burns Cameron (b. December 11, 1938 - June 12, 2023) was a realtor from Standish, Maine.

Jeopardy! Run

Burns appeared on the original version of Jeopardy! hosted by Art Fleming in 1965 (appearing in games #446-#450, aired December 13, 1965 through December 17, 1965), winning a record $7,070 in 5 games ($5,210 in his first four), with his top winnings for a single day coming in at $2,750.

Tournament of Champions

He returned to play 3 additional games in the 1966 Tournament of Champions, which aired October 17, 1966 to October 21, 1966, to become the Grand Champion and take home an additional $4,040 + a weeklong trip for 2 to Blackbeard's Castle in St. Thomas aboard Pan Am + a trophy called the annual Griffin Award. (Burns had to forfeit the trip when he asked to have it rescheduled when his daughter was hospitalized.) While Burns's cumulative total of $11,110 is believed to have stood for the duration of the Fleming era, his 5-day total was broken twice in 1969, by Dr. Elliot Shteir, a dentist from Somerville, New Jersey, winner of $8,230, and Mrs. Jane Gschwend, a housewife from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, winner of $8,250. All three of these champions, the then-highest money-winners on the show, returned to play for charity in the special show #2000 (Cameron as "a businessman from Larchmont, New York" playing for "Camphill Special Schools, Beaver Run, Glenmoore, Pennsylvania"). Cameron won $700 for his charity, Gschwend won $1,000 for her charity, and Shteir won $420 for his two charities. The three champions also split 2,000 Bantam paperback bestsellers (Gschwend received 1,000 of them and donated them to the Lancaster County Library). Before the game began, Mel Brooks made an appearance in character as the 2,000-Year-Old Man. Brooks asked Cameron while congratulating him, "Burns is your--is your first name?" "That's right," Cameron replied, "as in 'third degree.'" Brooks replied, "Burns? "Third Degree Burns"? I thought I came on to do the jokes?!"

Burns Cameron is introduced along with his previous 5-day total at the top of the 2,000th episode of the Fleming era, aired February 21, 1972.

Burns Cameron shakes hands with the 2,000-Year-Old Man.

The top three champions of the Fleming era won a combined $2,120 for charity on Fleming-era Show #2000. (Shteir was given an additional $200 before the Final Jeopardy! Round after a missed Daily Double late in the game brought his score down to $20.)

Super Jeopardy!

He returned in the fifth quarterfinals along with Bruce Seymour, Liz Caccese, and Rich Lerner on Super Jeopardy!, he answered thirteen responses correctly. However, in the FJ!, He and Bruce did come up with the right response, but Bruce defeat him by $1 and took $5,000 home.

Death

He passed away on June 12, 2023, slipped out of his brief coma into death just before midnight, at the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough.

Trivia

• He was the first contestant to forfeit the prize due to a family reason.