Longtime 'Price Is Right' host Bob Barker dies at 99

05:33+08:00, PM. Aug. 26, 2023 By Amy Blaszyk

Legendary game show host Bob Barker at the last taping of "The Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular," in 2007. Barker died at XX. Mark Davis/Getty Images
Barker spent 18 years hosting TV's That quiz show incorporated stunts — like this one from 1963. Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
Barker promotes the Tournament of Roses Parade on October 17, 1972. CBS /Landov
Barker started hosting in 1972. A photo from that year shows that contestants were as excited then as they are today. CBS /Landov
Barker, shown at home with his wife, Dorothy Jo Barker, in 1977, was a fighter pilot in the Navy before he started his broadcasting career. CBS /Landov
The simple format of — ordinary people try to guess the price of ordinary objects — remained essentially unchanged for more than 40 years. CBS /Landov
Miss Universe Deborah Carthy-Deu, of San Juan, smiles as she is crowned by Barker after the end of the 1985 pageant. Barker, a committed animal rights advocate, hosted Miss USA and Miss Universe for over two decades, resigning when producers refused to stop handing out fur coats as part of prize packages. Raul de Molina/AP
celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1991, but Barker was just getting started. Clockwise from top: Rod Roddy, Janice Pennington, Holly Hallstrom, Barker, Dian Parkinson and Kathleen Bradley. CBS /Landov
Barker waves to the audience during the taping of his final episode of . He spent 35 years hosting the show that secured his fame. Damian Dovarganes/AP
Bob Barker, left, and current The Price is Right host Drew Carey pose for a photo on set after a special appearance that celebrated Barker's 90th birthday. Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

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Game show host Bob Barker has died at the age of 99.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World's Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us," publicist Roger Neal said in a statement.

Barker, whose career spanned more than eight decades, was best known as the longtime host of on CBS. In 2002, he broke Johnny Carson's record for continuous performances on the same network TV show.

Barker began hosting when Richard Nixon was in the White House. He remained with the show for 35 years before retiring in 2007. Even at the end of his career, the then-80-something host was still taping five shows a week.

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Bob Barker Leaves 'The Price Is Right'

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At a press conference held on his last day, Barker said as much as he looked forward to retirement, getting ready to tape that final show wasn't easy.

"I really had myself worked up in an emotional state," he said, "and I thought, I've got to go over there and do this show — straighten yourself out, Barker!"

Born in 1923, Barker grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his mother was a schoolteacher. He never thought his future career would require cake makeup, the glare of camera lights or games like Plinko and Cliffhanger.

"I wanted to pitch for the Saint Louis Cardinals. That was my dream," Barker said. "And the only thing that prevented it was a total lack of talent."

Instead, Barker pitched in with the World War II effort. He served as a Navy fighter pilot, although he never saw combat. After the war, he returned to finish college and took a job hosting a radio show in Los Angeles. That eventually launched his career, and his next job was hosting TV's

That gig lasted for 18 years, twice the average lifespan for most TV stars — and for Barker, it was just a warm-up.

Bob Barker poses among a sea of prizes at the 6,000th taping of in 2004. Barker, who hosted the show for decades, was twice named TV's "Most Durable Performer" by Guinness World Records. Amanda Edwards/Getty Images hide caption

Bob Barker poses among a sea of prizes at the 6,000th taping of in 2004. Barker, who hosted the show for decades, was twice named TV's "Most Durable Performer" by Guinness World Records.

It was his role on that cemented his fame. From 1972 on, Barker's face was a familiar presence in the living rooms of everyone from little old ladies, to kids home sick from school. He even had a following among college students who claimed to set class schedules around the show.

The show's simple format — average people trying to guess the price of common household products, from Windex to washing machines — appealed to fans, and the show didn't change much over four decades. Nor did the host, except once: when Barker stopped dying his hair. Seemingly overnight, he went from dark hair to white. It's one of the most talked-about events in history.

"They were talking about making , and Adam's doctor said that he didn't think Adam could take another beating like I gave him," Barker once said.

In 1994, a former model, Dian Parkinson, sued Barker for sexual harassment. The host claimed what he described as an "affair" was consensual and Parkinson eventually dropped the lawsuit.

Barker used his fame to promote another great passion, animal rights. In 1988, after 21 years hosting the Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, Barker resigned when producers refused to eliminate fur coats from prize packages.

He established and endowed a foundation funding spaying and neutering services across the U.S., and in his later years, Barker donated large sums to various law schools to promote the study of animal rights. Each day, he ended with the same words: "This is Bob Barker, reminding you: Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered."

Barker earned more than a dozen Emmys and was twice named TV's "Most Durable Performer" by Guinness World Records.