Bob Barker, the longtime television host of The Price Is Right, has died at the age of 99.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” Barker’s publicist Roger Neal said in a statement.
According to Neal, Barker died of natural causes in his Hollywood Hills home.
Born on 12 December 1923 in Darrington, Washington, Barker grew up on the Rosebud Indian reservation in Mission, South Dakota.
Barker went on to attend high school in Missouri where he met his future wife Dorothy Jo Gideon. He later attended Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, on a basketball scholarship. During his time in university, Barker worked part time for the KTTS radio station.
Barker had an iconic career in the television industry, hosting CBS’s The Price is Right for 35 years up until his retirement in 2007. Before The Price is Right, Barker hosted Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975. In total, Barker taped more than 5,000 shows.
In an interview with the Associated Press in 1996, Barker recalled his initial emotions when he found out that he got hired on Truth or Consequences.
“I know exactly where I was, I know exactly how I felt: I hung up the phone and said to my wife, ‘Dorothy Jo, I got it!’” the Associated Press reports Barker saying.
He also hosted the Miss USA, Universe pageants on CBS from 1967 to 1987, and went on to become the longest-running host in pageant history. He later quit the Miss USA Pageant in 1987 in protest over the presentation of fur coats to the winners.
Throughout his career that spanned over 50 years, Barker garnered numerous awards including 19 Daytime Emmy awards, five of them for outstanding game show host.
Barker also won the Guinness World Record of television’s “Most Durable Performer” for his 3,524 consecutive performances of Truth or Consequences. He was also inducted into the National Association of Broadcasting Hall of Fame, as well as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame.
When Barker retired in June 2007, he told his audience: “I thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me into your home for more than 50 years.”
Time Magazine named Barker one of the best game-show hosts and hailed him for his “utterly natural charm” and “self-effacing people skills”.
“Quick-witted but never showy, mocking but never cruel, warm but never maudlin, Barker may have let his hair go white (with the network’s approval), but he never aged,” Time Magazine said.
Speaking to the Associated Press back in 1996, Barker said, “I want the contestants to feel as though they’re guests in my home … Perhaps my feeling of respect for them comes across to viewers, and that may be one of the reasons why I’ve lasted.”
Barker, a vegetarian, was a longtime animal rights activist and teamed up in 1983 with Nancy Burnet, president of the United Activists for Animal Rights.
In 1989 and 1991, both Barker and Burnet held rallies in New York City, where over 3,000 animal rights activists protested against the use of furs.
In 2004, Barker made a $1m donation to Columbia Law School to support the study of animal rights.
At the end of each The Price is Right show, Barker would tell viewers: “Don’t forget to have your pets spayed or neutered!”
In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Barker was asked how he would like to be remembered.
Barker replied: “How would I like to be remembered? As the man who said, ‘Have your pets spayed or neutered.’”
In response to Barker’s death, Burnet said: “I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally. We were great friends over these 40 years. He will be missed.”
Barker leaves behind his half-brother Kent Valandra and half-nephews Robert Valandra and Chip Valandra, and half-niece Vickie Valandra Kelly.
Associated Press contributed reporting.
