Longtime Magician and skeptic famous for exposing paranormal claims, James Randi has died at the age of 92.
Randi was born Randall James Zwinge in Toronto, Canada in 1928, but later became “The Amazing Randi” early in his magic career. Randi appeared on several television programs performing magic throughout the years but also experienced fame as a skeptic on The Amazing Randi Show on WNBC in the late 1960s where he began to debunk people who had claims of paranormal and/or psychic power.
“The Amazing Randi” also and a feud with self-proclaimed psychic, Uri Geller (who may be best known for spoon-bending), in which Randi accused Geller of being nothing more than a charlatan and a fraud who used standard magic tricks to accomplish his allegedly paranormal feats. The feud eventually found its way into court with Geller losing. Randi also exposed faith healers, televangelists, and more.
James Randi created the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which was an offer by the James Randi Education Foundation to pay out one million U.S. dollars to anyone that could demonstrate a legitimate supernatural or paranormal activity. The challenge lasted from 1964-2015 and had over a thousand people attempt it with none being successful.
Randi is survived by his husband Deyvi Pena.
