TV legend Bob Barker, known for hosting “The Price Is Right” for 35 years, has died, Page Six can confirm. He was 99.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” his rep tells us Saturday.
A spokesperson for CBS, the network behind “Price Is Right,” adds in a statement to Page Six, “We lost a beloved member of the CBS family today with the passing of Bob Barker.
“During his 35 years as host of ‘The Price Is Right’ Bob made countless people’s dreams come true and everyone feel like a winner when they were called to ‘come on down.’”
The rep concludes, “In addition to his legendary 50-year career in broadcasting, Bob will be remembered as a dedicated animal rights activist. Daytime television has lost one of its most iconic stars.”
According to TMZ, the game show host died peacefully in his Los Angeles home Saturday morning of “natural causes.”
In January 2019, Barker suffered an injury after taking a spill in his Hollywood Hills home.
He was treated by paramedics onsite and was not taken in for further treatment at the time.
The year prior, Barker was hospitalized in Los Angeles twice within one month because of severe back pain. After the second hospitalization, his manager said he was doing much better under the doctor’s care.
The former host also went to the hospital in 2017 after hitting his head in a fall at his home.
Robert William Barker was born on Dec. 12, 1923 in Darrington, Wash., to parents Byron Barker and Matilda Tarleton Barker.
Although Barker was born in Washington, he grew up in Mission, S.D., on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. In high school, Barker’s family moved to Springfield, Mo., where he ended up obtaining a basketball scholarship to Drury College (now Drury University).
During Barker’s time in college, the US entered into World War II and he left to become a Naval Aviation Cadet, earning his wings at Corpus Christi in 1944.
The following year he wed his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Jo Gideon. Barker was awaiting assignment in Michigan when the war ended and returned to Drury to finish school.
Source: https://pagesix.com/2023/08/26/price-is-right-host-bob-barker-dead-at-99/