1950s Quiz Show Scandal Figure Van Doren In Stable Condition

Charles Van Doren, the academic boy wonder whose fall from grace during the TV game-show scandal of the 1950s was depicted in the movie “Quiz Show,” was in stable condition Wednesday after collapsing at a gas station.

Van Doren, 69, was discovered bleeding from the nose and ears as he lay beside his car Monday. Hartford Hospital would not say what caused his collapse.

A member of a distinguished academic family, Van Doren won $129,000 on the TV quiz show “21” and became a national celebrity before admitting at a congressional hearing that he had been given the answers in advance.

After the scandal broke, Van Doren resigned his position as an English instructor at Columbia University and returned to his family’s estate in rural Cornwall.