OAN’s Roy Francis
11:30 AM – Saturday, August 26, 2023
Bob Barker, the longtime host of “The Price Is Right” has died of natural causes at his Hollywood Hills home. He was 99 years old.
Barker’s publicist Roger Neal confirmed the death of the gameshow host on Saturday, saying that Barker died “peacefully” at his Hollywood Hills home.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” Neal said.
Robert William Barker was born in Darrington, Washington on December 12th, 1923. As a member of the Sioux tribe, he spent most of his childhood on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission, South Dakota.
“I’ve always bragged about being part Indian, because they are a people to be proud of — and the Sioux were the greatest warriors of them all,” Barker had said in 1962. “They’ve been called the greatest light cavalry in the history of man. And I have never been on a horse without falling off.”
Barker had joined the United States Navy as a reservist in 1943 to train as a fighter pilot, although he never served on active duty. He married his wife, Dorothy Jo Gideon, in 1945. The couple never had any children, and his wife passed away in 1981.
He had hosted his own radio show in Burbank titled “The Bob Barker Show” for six years and was also hosting a radio show in Los Angeles when he replaced original host Jack Baily on “Truth or Consequences.”
Barker hosted “Truth or Consequences” from 1956 to 1975. In 1972, he was asked to host and produce the revival of “the Price is Right” by CBS, which he did until 2007.
Throughout his career, Barker had won 19 Daytime Emmy awards, 14 of which were for Outstanding Game Show Host for his run on “The Price Is Right.” He also won four outstanding Game Show awards for his role as the program’s executive producer.
In 1976 Barker received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2004, and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008.
Barker’s close friend, Nanvy Burnet, also the co-executor of his estate who has overseen his care for many years told the New York Post that she’s “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.”
When asked about how he would like to be remember, Barker said that he wants to be remembered “as a guy who loved all living things.”
“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,” he had answered.
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