Television legend Bob Barker, known for hosting “The Price Is Right” for 35 years, has died, Page Six can confirm. He was 99 years old.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the greatest MC in the world that has ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” his rep told us on Saturday.
A spokesperson for CBS, the network behind “Price Is Right,” added in a statement to Page Six: “Today we lost a beloved member of the CBS family with the passing of Bob Barker.
“During his 35 years as the host of ‘The Price Is Right,’ Bob made the dreams of countless people come true and everyone felt like a winner when they were called ‘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.”
Bob Barker is dead, Page Six can confirm.Getty Images
According to TMZ, the game show host died peacefully at his Los Angeles home on Saturday morning of “natural causes.”
In January 2019, Barker suffered an injury after suffering a stroke at his Hollywood Hills home.
He was treated by paramedics at the scene and was not taken in for further treatment at the time.
The previous year, Barker had been hospitalized in Los Angeles twice in one month due to severe back pain. After the second hospitalization, his manager said that he was much better under the doctor’s care.
The former driver also went to the hospital in 2017 after hitting his head when he fell at home.
The legendary TV presenter was 99 years old.WireImage
Robert William Barker was born on December 12, 1923, in Darrington, Washington, to parents Byron Barker and Matilda Tarleton Barker.
Although Barker was born in Washington, he grew up in Mission, SD, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. In high school, Barker’s family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he ended up earning a basketball scholarship to Drury College (now Drury University).
During the time Barker was in college, the United States entered World War II and he dropped out to become a naval aviation cadet, earning his wings at Corpus Christi in 1944.
The following year, he married his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Jo Gideon. Barker was waiting for an assignment in Michigan when the war ended and he returned to Drury to finish school.
Barker grew up in South Dakota prior to her television career. Getty Images
It was there that he began his foray as a presenter working at a local radio station, where he accidentally made his first screen debut.
“I had never studied speech. She had never studied theater. She had never been in a school play. He had never been before an audience and was on duty there as an announcer. Ted Tucker, bless him, he didn’t show up,” Barker said during an Emmy interview in 2000.
“I didn’t even have time to get nervous. I’m out there doing it live.”
It was after that show that Barker’s wife felt she had found her calling. The couple moved to Los Angeles so Barker could pursue his broadcasting career.
Barker hosted “The Price Is Right” for 35 years.Getty Images
In 1956, Barker became the host of the popular game show “Truth or Consequences,” which ran until 1975. He then hosted shows like “End of the Rainbow,” “The Family Game,” “Simon Says,” and “That It’s my line.” In 1972, he became the host of “The Price is Right,” solidifying his legacy.
Barker spent 35 years as the show’s host before retiring in 2007. He won 19 Daytime Emmy Awards for “The Price is Right” and in 1999 was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
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In 2004, Barker was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. He has also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a stage named after him at the CBS Television City studio complex.
Barker was an award-winning host and inductee into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2004.FilmMagic
“From the bottom of my heart I thank the viewers, because they have made it possible for me to earn a living for 50 years doing something that I enjoy very much. They have invited me into their homes daily for half a century, ”she said upon leaving“ The price is right ”.
During her time on the hit game show, Barker received several lawsuits filed against her by various women alleging harassment and wrongful termination. In 1994, Dian Parkinson, one of the models on the show, sued Barker for $8 million.
According to Time magazine, she claimed that she had been forced to have sex with Barker to keep her job before being fired.
Barker previously faced multiple allegations of harassment and wrongful termination.Getty Images
Barker released a statement at the time saying the couple had been in a consensual relationship for more than a year. Parkinson later dropped the lawsuit when she was unable to pay legal fees.
Another model, Holly Hallstrom, sued Barker the following year, alleging that she had been fired for gaining weight and refusing to tell false stories about Parkinson’s to the press. Hallstrom won a settlement.
In addition to his 50-year hosting career, Barker has also appeared as himself on several television 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’s rep confirmed his passing to Page Six with “deep sadness.” Getty Images
Barker also spent the better half of his life as an animal rights activist and PETA supporter. He resigned as host of the “Miss Universe” and “Miss United States” pageants after 20 years in 1987 because officials handed out fur coats as prizes.
In 1994, Barker founded the DJ&T Foundation, named after Gideon and his mother, to fund spay and neuter clinics. At the end of each episode of “The Price Is Right,” Barker would tell viewers, “Let’s help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”
Gideon, who died of lung cancer in 1981, and Barker never had children during their 36-year marriage.
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