Bob Barker, the former host of the iconic daytime television gameshow “The Price Is Right” has passed away at the age of 99.
Barker died at his home Saturday morning of old age; he was just a few months away from his 100th birthday.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” his publicist Roger Neal stated.
The legendary host was born on Dec. 12, 1923, in Darrington, Washington. After the death of his father, he and his mother moved to Mission, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation. Barker had Sioux ancestry and became an enrolled member of the tribe. After his mother remarried, they moved to Missouri.
Barker graduated from high school in 1941 and then attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri. He left to join the United States Navy as an aviation cadet during World War II. The war ended before Barker was deployed to combat and he returned to Drury and graduated in 1947 with a degree in economics.
Barker married his wife Dorthey Jo Gideon in 1945 while on leave from the navy, they were together until her death from lung cancer in 1981. They did not have any children.
Barker began his professional career in radio and became the host of the game show “Truth or Consequences” in 1956 and kept the role for almost two decades. In 1972, he started hosting “The Price Is Right,” which would become his most known occupation until his retirement in 2007 after 35 years. Barker was the recipient of 19 Daytime Emmys, including 14 for outstanding game show host.
Barker hosted the Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants from 1967 until 1987. However, Barker was a staunch animal rights activist and a vegetarian, and ceased hosting pageants due to contestants wearing animal furs. Barker ended each “The Price Is Right” episode by saying, “Have your pets spayed or neutered.”
Current host of “The Price Is Right” Drew Carey posted a tribute to Bob Barker on X (formerly known as Twitter). Carey stated, “Very sad day for the Price Is Right family, and animal lovers all over the world. There hasn’t been a day on set that I didn’t think of Bob Barker and thank him. I will carry his memory forever in my heart.”
Bob Barker is survived by his younger half-brother, two half-nephews, and a half-niece.
