TV legend Bob Barker, known for hosting “The Price Is Right” for 35 years, has died, Pvnew can /confirm/i. He was 99.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” his rep tells us Saturday.
A spokesperson for CBS, the network behind “Price Is Right,” adds in a statement to Pvnew, “We lost a beloved member of the CBS family today with the passing of Bob Barker.
“During his 35 years as host of ‘The Price Is Right’ Bob made countless people’s dreams come true and everyone feel like a winner when they were called to ‘come on down.’”
The rep concludes, “In addition to his legendary 50-year career in broadcasting, Bob will be remembered as a dedicated animal rights activist. Daytime television has lost one of its most iconic stars.”
According to TMZ, the game show host died peacefully in his Los Angeles home Saturday morning of “natural causes.”
In January 2019, Barker suffered an injury after taking a spill in his Hollywood Hills home.
He was treated by paramedics onsite and was not taken in for further treatment at the time.
The year prior, Barker was hospitalized in Los Angeles twice within one month because of severe back pain. After the second hospitalization, his manager said he was doing much better under the doctor’s care.
The former host also went to the hospital in 2017 after hitting his head in a fall at his home.
Robert William Barker was born on Dec. 12, 1923 in Darrington, Wash., to parents Byron Barker and Matilda Tarleton Barker.
Although Barker was born in Washington, he grew up in Mission, S.D., on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. In high school, Barker’s family moved to Springfield, Mo., where he ended up obtaining a basketball scholarship to Drury College (now Drury University).
During Barker’s time in college, the US entered into World War II and he left to become a Naval Aviation Cadet, earning his wings at Corpus Christi in 1944.
The following year he wed his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Jo Gideon. Barker was awaiting assignment in Michigan when the war ended and returned to Drury to finish school.
It was there that he began his foray into hosting by working a local radio station, where he accidentally made his first on-screen debut.
“I had never studied speech. I’d never studied drama. I had never been in a school play. I had never been before an audience and I was on duty there as an announcer. Ted Tucker, bless him, didn’t show up,” Barker said during an Emmys interview in 2000.
“I didn’t even have time to get nervous. I’m out there doing it live.”
It was after that show, Barker’s wife felt he found his calling. The couple moved to Los Angeles so Barker could pursue his career in broadcasting.
In 1956, Barker became the host of the popular game show, “Truth or Consequences,” which ran until 1975. He went on to host shows including “End of the Rainbow,” “The Family Game,” “Simon Says” and “That’s My Line.” In 1972, he became the host of “The Price is Right,” which solidified his legacy.
Barker spent 35 years as the host of the show before retiring in 2007. He won 19 Daytime Emmys for “The Price is Right,” and in 1999 was honored with Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2004, Barker was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. He has also been honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and a stage named after him on the CBS Television City studio complex.
“From the bottom of my heart, I thank the television viewers, because they have made it possible for me to earn a living for 50 years doing something that I thoroughly enjoy. They have invited me into their homes daily for a half a century,” he said when he retired from “The Price is Right.”
During his time on hit game show, Barker had several lawsuits lodged against him from multiple women claiming harassment and wrongful termination. In 1994, Dian Parkinson, one of the show’s models, sued Barker for $8 million.
According to Time magazine, she claimed she’d been forced to have sex with Barker to keep her job before she was fired.
Barker released a statement at the time saying the pair had a consensual relationship for over a year. Parkinson later dropped the lawsuit when she couldn’t afford to pay the legal fees.
Another model, Holly Hallstrom, sued Barker the following year, claiming she’d been fired for gaining weight and refusing to tell the press false stories about Parkinson. Hallstrom won a settlement.
Outside of his 50-year hosting career, Barker also appeared as himself in various TV shows including “The Nanny,” “Futurama,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “Yes, Dear.” Perhaps his most famous cameo as himself was in “Happy Gilmore” when he and Adam Sandler get into a fistfight during a golf tournament, leading to the now famous line, “The price is wrong, bitch.”
Barker also dedicated a better half of his life as an animal rights activist and supporter of PETA. He resigned as host of the “Miss Universe” and “Miss USA” pageants after 20 years in 1987 because officials gave out fur coats as awards.
In 1994, Barker founded the DJ&T foundation, named after Gideon and his mother, to fund spay and neuter clinics. At the end of every “Price is Right” episode, Barker would tell viewers, “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”
Gideon, who passed away from lung cancer in 1981, and Barker never had children during their 36-year marriage.
