Source: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty
Bob Barker, the iconic host of game show “The Price is Right”, died on Saturday at 99 years old.
“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 Saturday.
Barker’s tenure as the host for the longest-running game show in North American television history began in 1972 and spanned nearly four decades, retiring in 2007. He also worked as the host of “Truth or Consequences,” from 1956 to 1974.
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 landed a job at a radio station in Florida and then not too long after he moved to California to start his own radio program, “The Bob Barker Show,” in Burbank.
He caught the attention of Television producers who were tuning in, which led to Barker landing his first game show in 1956, NBC’s “Truth or Consequences,” a job he held for 18 years until it went off the air.
Aside from Barker’s illustrious career as a game show host, he also appeared in movies and shows. One of his most famous cameos was when he appeared in Adam Sandler’s movie, “Happy Gilmore”.
Barker was also known for being a longtime animal rights activist, ending each episode of “The Price is Right” with the plea: “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”
