Bob Barker, the longtime host of tv sport present The Price Is Right, has died, in line with his publicist. He was 99 and died at his residence a couple of months wanting his a hundredth birthday.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” publicist Roger Neal mentioned in an announcement Saturday. No trigger was given.
The Price Is Right franchise started in 1956 as a tv sport present hosted by Bill Cullen and was revamped in 1972, when Barker turned host. Drew Carey has hosted this system since 2007.
The sport present had already been canceled by two networks earlier than discovering a house at CBS in 1972. Barker’s appeal helped revive the sagging present, and it continues to air to this present day.
Barker spent greater than half a century on TV, taking on as host of the favored sport present Truth or Consequences in 1956 and retiring from The Price Is Right in 2007.
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At The Price Is Right present’s fiftieth anniversary particular in 2021, Barker paid tribute to the sport.
“The show has the most enthusiastic and fun audience that one could ever ask for,” mentioned Barker. “They truly were and are the heart and soul of the show …. It was an incredibly memorable ride. Congratulations to The Price is Right on 50 historic years. Here’s to 50 more!”
Going on 70,000 contestants have performed The Price Is Right since its revamp debuted on September 4, 1972, and a pair of million-plus have been in its studio viewers. The first prize ever supplied on the present was a Chevy Vega value $2,746 — some 8,400 automotive giveaways have ensued.
Robert William Barker was born in Darrington, Washington, on December 12, 1923. At age 6, he was moved to a Sioux Indian reservation in Mission, SD, along with his mom, after his father died in a office accident.
Bob Barker with a contestant and visitor on ‘Truth or Consequences’
His mom, Matilda, a schoolteacher, remarried and moved once more to Missouri. After a two-year stint within the Navy on the tail finish of World War II, Barker returned to Missouri to attend Drury College, now Drury University, and graduated with a level in economics.
From there, Barker landed a job at a radio station in Florida. In 1950, he moved to California to begin his personal radio program, The Bob Barker Show, in Burbank.
His easy supply quickly caught the attention of tv producers. He landed his first sport present in 1956, NBC’s Truth or Consequences. He hosted that present for 18 years till it went off the air.
Barker transitioned to The Price Is Right, which turned the longest-running daytime sport present in TV historical past in 1990, till his retirement.
Beyond sport exhibits, Barker additionally utilized his emcee expertise to pageants. In 1967, he started a 20-year run as emcee of the Miss Universe and Miss America pageants, and in 1969, he began a equally long term because the host of the New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade.
Barker was given an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Bob Barker slugs Adam Sandler within the well-known ‘Happy Gilmore’ struggle scene
Universal/Everett Collection
He additionally made a famously riotous cameo within the 1996 movie Happy Gilmore, the place he beat up Adam Sandler’s title character on a golf course.
A longtime animal rights activist, Barker ended every episode of The Price Is Right with the plea: “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”
Barker’s spouse, his highschool sweetheart, Dorothy Jo Gideon, died in 1981. They married in 1945.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued an announcement on Barker’s passing.
“Bob’s influence on the entertainment industry is indisputable, but what mattered to him most was using his voice and prominent position to protect animals. Of course, everyone is familiar with his “spay and neuter your pets” sign-off on The Price Is Right—a present the place he refused to permit fur prizes—however he was additionally one of many first stars to go vegetarian, greater than 30 years in the past.
“He joined PETA in urging households to steer clear of SeaWorld, demanded the closure of merciless bear pits masquerading as vacationer points of interest, implored (*99*) to take motion to guard animals utilized in movie and TV, and, as a Navy veteran, known as for the top of army medical drills on dwell animals.
His beneficiant donation allowed PETA to open its West Coast headquarters, the Bob Barker Building, in 2012, and it stands as a testomony to his legacy and profound dedication to creating the world a kinder place. To us—and to so many animals around the globe—Bob will at all times be a nationwide animal rights treasure.”
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