Bob Barker, the iconic host of “The Price is Right,” has died at the age of 99, according to multiple reports.
Barker reportedly died peacefully on Saturday morning at his home in Hollywood Hills, California.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” his longtime spokesman Roger Neal 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,” said Neal – who served as Barker’s publicist from 1987 to 1994 and again from 2020.
The legendary game show legend allegedly died of natural causes.
NBC News reported, “Robert William Barker was born in Darrington, Washington, on Dec. 12, 1923, and at the age of 6 moved to a Sioux Indian reservation in Mission, South Dakota, with his mother after his father died in a workplace accident. His mother, Matilda, a schoolteacher, remarried and moved again to Missouri. After a two-year stint in the Navy at the tail end of World War II, Barker returned to Missouri to attend Drury College, now Drury University, and graduated with a degree in economics.”
Barker moved to Burbank, California, in 1950 to start his own radio program called “The Bob Barker Show.”
Renowned game show producer Ralph Edwards discovered Barker from his radio show, and hired him for the “Truth or Consequences” TV game show in 1956.
Barker moved on to host “The Price Is Right” in 1972. Barker – with his charisma and deadpan humor – became an American television staple. Barker retired from “The Price Is Right” in 2007.
Barker won 19 Daytime Emmy awards: 14 times for Outstanding Game Show Host for “The Price Is Right” and four Outstanding Game Show awards as the popular game show’s producer. He was also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1995 Daytime Emmys.
Barker was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2004 and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008
In 1976, Barker received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Barker was also the longtime emcee of the Miss Universe and Miss America pageants. He was also the host of the New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade.
Barker was considered a trailblazer as an animal rights activist.
When asked how he would like to be remembered in a 2007 interview, Barker said, “I think that it would be nice if people remembered me as a guy who loved all living things and did as much as he could to make ours a better world for animals — and also did quite a few television shows.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Bob Barker on his legacywww.youtube.com