Long-time "The Price Is Right" television host Bob Barker has died at 99.Mark Davis/Getty Images
Bob Barker, an affable fixture on U.S. television for half a century who hosted the popular game show “The Price Is Right” for 35 years and was a committed animal rights activist, has died at age 99, his publicist said.
The silver-haired Barker, host of “The Price Is Right” from 1972 to 2007, won 19 Daytime Emmy awards, the top U.S. television honour, and also was known for a memorable comic turn playing himself in the hit 1996 film “Happy Gilmore,” beating up a character played by Adam Sandler.
Barker died on Saturday morning of natural causes at his long-time Hollywood Hills, California, home, his publicist Roger Neal said.
Barker gave millions of dollars to pro-animal causes, including donating $5 million for a 1,200-ton ship named the Bob Barker that was operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to stop Japanese whaling ships from killing whales off Antarctica.
From the archives: Bob Barker giving $50,000 to Manitoba couple to rehabilitate bears
“The Price Is Right,” in which contestants tried to guess the price of various consumer products and played a slew of games to win prizes, became a U.S. pop culture institution on daytime TV with the smooth-talking Barker at the helm for 6,586 episodes.
A studio announcer would bray “Come on down!” as one by one excited contestants would trot out of a studio audience down to the stage. Exuberant contestants occasionally would bear-hug and even tackle Barker.
Television host Bob Barker on the set of his show "The Price is Right" in Los Angeles on July 25, 1985.Lennox Mclendon/The Associated Press
“Can I kiss you?” a woman once inquired during a show.
“No, I’m working,” deadpanned Barker, known for his good-natured humour. “Meet me in the parking lot later.”
Barker retired in June, 2007, telling his studio audience: “I thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me into your home for more than 50 years.”
From the archives: The price of saying goodbye to Bob Barker
Over the years, he handed out more than $300 million in cash and prizes like cars, appliances and trips. In all, he taped more than 5,000 shows in his career.
“I think TV hosts are like pies and some people like apple and some cherry and some chocolate,” Barker told the Hartford Courant in 2009. “I’m just very fortunate that they liked me well enough to invite me into their homes for 50 years.”
Host Bob Barker answers questions on stage at a news conference after the taping of his final episode of the game show "The Price Is Right" in Los Angeles on June 6, 2007.Fred Prouser/Reuters
“The Price Is Right” became the longest-running game show on U.S. television. Barker returned to the show in 2013 to mark his 90th birthday and again in 2015 for an April Fools’ Day episode.
CBS said in a statement on Saturday that daytime television has lost one of its “most iconic stars.”
“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.’ In addition to his legendary 50-year career in broadcasting, Bob will be remembered as a dedicated animal rights activist.”
From the archives: Bob Barker, a pioneer of videotape, marks its 60th year
Barker was known for pro-animal causes and campaigned for them into his 90s. He would end episodes of “The Price Is Right” by urging viewers to get their pets spayed and neutered to control the animal population and began a foundation to subsidize the practices. He also spoke out against the treatment of animals in zoos, rodeos and circuses.
Barker stopped eating meat in 1979. His hair abruptly became silver when he quit using hair dye because it is tested on animals. In 1987, Barker quit as long-time host of the Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants when pageant officials refused to stop draping contestants in fur coats.
Bob Barker, a long-time animal rights advocate, speaks during a news conference in downtown Los Angeles on June 17, 2015. Barker criticized poultry producer Foster Farms after an animal-rights group released videos showing cruel treatment of chickens.Amanda Lee Myers/The Associated Press
Among his activities on behalf of 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 every day on the road named for him after his game-changing contribution,” said Save the Chimps’ CEO Ana Paula Tavares. At the time of the donation, Barker said that he hoped chimpanzees tortured “physically and mentally” for years when being used for research experiments would find “the first peace, contentment and love they have ever known at Save the Chimps.”
From the archives: Bob Barker fails to sway Ontario on abandoning spring bear hunt
In the film “Happy Gilmore,” Barker played himself in a memorable scene in which he was playing in a golf pro-am tournament with Sandler’s character, an excitable failed hockey player turned golfer. The two come to blows in a wild, extended comic brawl that ended with Barker thrashing Sandler.
They staged another fight for a promotional video in 2015 when Barker, who studied karate with tough-guy actor Chuck Norris, was 91.
In 1994, a woman who worked as a model on “The Price is Right” sued him for sexual harassment but Barker said it was a consensual intimate relationship. The suit later was dropped.
Barker, born on Dec. 12, 1923, in Darrington, Washington, began his career in radio. In 1956, he was hired to host a TV version of the radio quiz show “Truth or Consequences” on NBC, and stayed with the program until 1975. Even before his stint on that show wrapped up, Barker began hosting “The Price Is Right” on CBS.
In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Barker recalled receiving the news that he had been hired to host “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!’”
Barker did not remarry after his wife, Dorothy, died of cancer in 1981.
With reports from The Associated Press.