Bob Barker, Host of ‘The Price Is Right,’ Dies at 99

Barker, also a veteran animal rights activist, died Saturday morning at his Los Angeles home, publicist Roger Neal said.

“I am very proud of the pioneering work that Barker and I did together to expose cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry, including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” Nancy said. Burnet, its a long time. friend and co-executor of her estate, in a statement.

Barker retired in June 2007, telling his studio audience, “I thank you, thank you, thank you for having me in your home for over 50 years.”

Barker was working in radio in 1956 when producer Ralph Edwards invited him to audition as the new host of “Truth or Consequences,” a game show in which audience members had to perform outlandish stunts (the “consequences”). ) if they did not answer a question. question: the “truth,” which was always the silly punchline to a riddle that no one was supposed to provide. (Q: What did one eye say to the other? A: Right between us, something smells.)

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Barker recalled receiving the news that he had been hired: “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’m sorry! I have!'”

Barker stayed on “Truth or Consequences” for 18 years, including several years in a syndicated version.

Meanwhile, he began hosting a resurrected version of “The Price Is Right” on CBS in 1972 (the original host in the 1950s and ’60s was Bill Cullen). It would become the longest-running game show on television and the last to be broadcast. network of what in the early days of television numbered dozens.

“I’ve aged in their service,” the silver-haired, ever-tanned Barker quipped in a prime-time television retrospective in the mid-’90s.

CBS said in a statement that daytime television has lost one of its “most iconic stars.”

“Today we lost a beloved member of the CBS family with the passing of Bob Barker,” the network said, noting that he had “made countless dreams come true and everyone felt like a winner when they were called to come.” ‘”

In total, he recorded more than 5,000 shows throughout his career. She said that she was leaving because “I’m just getting to the age where the constant effort of being there and doing the show physically is too much for me. … It is better (to leave) a year early than a year too late.” Comedian Drew Carey was chosen to replace him.

Barker returned with Carey for a show that aired in April 2009. She was there to promote the publication of her memoir, “Priceless Memories,” in which she summed up her joy at presenting the show as a chance to “see people reveal themselves and to see how the emotion and humor develop.”

“There hasn’t been a day on set that I haven’t thought of Bob Barker and said thank you. I will carry the memory of him in my heart forever”, Carey. wrote in a post on Xthe site formerly known as Twitter.

Barker well understood the appeal of “The Price Is Right,” in which audience members, invited to “Get down!” to the stage: they competed for prizes trying to guess their retail value.

“Everybody can identify with the prices, even the president of the United States. The viewers at home get involved because everyone has an opinion on the deals,” Barker once said. His own appeal was clear: Barker acted with clarity: warm, kind, and witty, refusing to make fun of the game show format or its contestants.

“I want the contestants to feel like guests in my house,” he said in 1996. “Perhaps my feeling of respect for them will be passed on to the viewers, and that may be one of the reasons why I have lasted. “

As a television personality, Barker kept a touch of the old school: for example, he did not have a wireless microphone. Like the microphone itself, the microphone cable served as an accessory, nonchalantly moved and refined.

The longevity of his career, he said, was the result of being content. “I had the opportunity to do this type of show and I found that I enjoyed it…People who do something they really enjoy and started doing it when they were very young, I don’t think they want to stop.”

Barker also spent 20 years as a presenter for the Miss USA pageant and the Miss Universe pageant. A longtime animal rights activist who daily urged her viewers to “spay or neuter their pets” and successfully lobbied to ban fur coats as prizes on “The Price Is Right,” she dropped out of the Miss Miss pageant. USA in 1987 in protest at the presentation of fur coats to the winners.

Among his activities on behalf of the animals was a $250,000 donation to Save the Chimps, the Fort Pierce, Florida-based organization said in an emailed statement Saturday.

“Bob Barker’s kind spirit lives on at Save the Chimps, where we walk the road that bears his name for his revolutionary contribution every day,” said Ana Paula Tavares, Save the Chimps executive director. At the time of the donation, Barker said he hoped chimpanzees “physically and mentally” tortured for years when used for research experiments would find “the first peace, contentment and love they’ve ever known in Save the Chimps.”

In 1997, Barker refused to host the Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony because he said he despised game shows by not airing awards in the category. He called game shows “the mainstays of daytime television.”

He had a memorable cameo on the big screen in 1996, fighting with Adam Sandler in the movie “Happy Gilmore.” “I did ‘The Price Is Right’ for 35 years and they ask me what it was like to beat up Adam Sandler,” Barker later quipped.

Sandler paid tribute to Barker on Instagram Saturday with a series of images of them together. “The man. The myth. The best. Such a sweet fun guy to hang out with.” Sandler captioned the post. “I loved talking to him. I loved laughing with him. I loved getting kicked by him.”

In 1994, the widowed Barker was sued for sexual harassment by Dian Parkinson, a “Price is Right” model of 18 years. Barker admitted to having “tissues” with Parkinson’s between 1989 and 1991, but said she initiated the relationship. Parkinson withdrew the lawsuit in 1995, saying it was harming her health.

Barker became embroiled in a dispute with another former “Price Is Right” model, Holly Hallstrom, who claimed she was fired in 1995 because the show’s producers believed she was fat. Barker denied the allegations.

None of the riots affected the goodwill of the audience.

Born in Darrington, Washington, in 1923, Barker spent part of his childhood on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his widowed mother had taken a teaching job. The family later moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he attended high school. He served in the Navy in World War II.

He married Dorothy Jo Gideon, his high school sweetheart; He died in 1981 after 37 years of marriage. They had no children.

Barker received a lifetime achievement award at the 26th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 1999. He closed his acceptance remarks with the farewell: “Get your pets spayed or neutered.”

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AP Entertainment writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.