Posted on 08/26/2023 10:04:39 AM PDT by Drew68
Bob Barker, the iconic American game show host and animal rights activist, has died ... TMZ has learned.
Barker died peacefully at his home Saturday morning in L.A. His rep tells TMZ Bob died of natural causes.
The longtime host of "The Price Is Right" actually got his start in game shows after legendary producer Ralph Edwards discovered him while listening to Bob's radio show and hired him for TV.
Barker started off hosting the iconic hit, "Truth or Consequences" back in 1956, on which he starred until 1975. He also hosted a number of other game shows and programs over the years, including "Dream Girl of '67," "Tattletales," 'Miss Universe,' and most famously ... "The Price is Right," which he produced and hosted until 2007.
Drew Carey took over as host, and the show continues to be extremely popular to this day.
Barker has appeared in a number of other TV shows and films over the years, oftentimes starring as himself. He got into a fight with Adam Sandler in "Happy Gilmore," stood in as Neil Patrick Harris' would-be biological father in "How I Met Your Mother," and played himself in lots of other shows like "Futurama," "Spongebob," "The Nanny," "Martial Law" and many others.
He had several minor bouts of skin cancer over the years, and suffered a nasty fall in in 2015 and 2017 that sent him to the ER. He fell again in 2019, and was treated once more at the hospital. On top of that, he was transported by ambulance twice in 2018 for back issues.
Safe to say, he's had a lot of health scares over the years, especially of late. Of course, when the pandemic hit in 2020 ... we checked in with him to see how we was dealing -- and were pleasantly surprised to learn he was taking it in stride. Self-isolating wasn't a problem.
We last saw him out in the streets of Hollywood back in 2016, when he was complaining to us about a bad foot he was dealing with. We chopped it up with him about TV, residuals, his basketball-playing days, and ... a potential Sandler rematch. He was such a good sport and a sweet guy.
Bob's wife, Dorothy Jos, died of lung cancer in 1981. They had no children, and he never remarried. Bob does, however, have extended family that have helped care for him in his later years.
Bob was 99. RIP.
There's Mayim Byalik of Jeopardy. Not exactly a host, but I don't think "hostess" is politically correct.
Bob Barker was on Bold & Beautiful years ago with the Liam character in some storyline about rescue animals. It was a promotion for rescue shelters. I found Liam almost tolerable in that plot. Bob was great in those skits; such a pleasant, jovial and elegant man.
From elsewhere: Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Bob Barker, Sea Shepherd turned a whaling vessel into an anti-whaling ship.
Sea Shepherd was a greenpeace boat used to harass legitimate fishing vessels. Barker funded, and enable, a bunch of psycho enviro nazis. In grateful appreciation, they renamed Sea Shepherd the Bob Barker.
For six years, the Bob Barker chased the Japanese whaling fleet around the Antarctic continent.
I remember they had Hope (still played by the lovely Kim Matula) adopt some white kitten. Then it was never seen or heard from again...
Meh, not gonna get too worked up over harassing whaling ships. This ain’t the 19th century anymore.
Nope. That was that other guy.
But I do get worked up over environazis, and that definitely describes greenpeace. And Barker was a member.
Must be great knowing all this stuff without really knowing any of it.
Were you not good looking enough for him?
HA! Winner.
Yup. Rest in eternal peace.
Some are deranged lunatics, to be sure.
RIP. The other day it was mentioned on Facebook that it was Monty Hall’s birthday and he’d be 102 if he were still with us today. So when thinking about the other game show hosts I grew up with we would have both Gene Rayburn (Match Game) and Allen Ludden (Password) at 105 and turning 106 later this year, Bert Convy (Tattletales) at 90 as of last month, Richard Dawson (Family Feud) turning 91 this coming November, Alex Trebek 83 last month as well, Bill Cullen (The Joker’s Wild) at 103, Tom Kennedy (Nightime Price is Right) 96, and Art James (Super Pay Cards) 94 in October.
Wink Martindale (Tic Tac Dough) who is still with us will be 90 in December.
As a further to my post, Johnny Olson who announced many of the game shows many of us here grew up with would have been 113 back in May.
Art Linkletter wound be 111.
Uncle Milty would be 115.
|
And Bob Hope would be 120.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.