Bob Barker Dead: ‘The Price Is Right’ Host Was 99

Bob Barker, the legendary former host of The Price Is Right, has passed away. He was 99. Barker’s representative confirmed the passing to TMZ. The game show icon passed away on Saturday morning from natural causes.

Barker was born in Darrington, Washington, in 1923, but spent most of his early life on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, as he is listed as an official member of the Sioux tribe. He married his wife Dorothy Jo Gideon in 1945, but sadly she passed away in 1981 after a battle with lung cancer. Barker spent many decades in showbusiness, with the overwhelming majority of his career as the host of The Price Is Right. He began hosting it in 1972 and turned it over to comedian Drew Carey in 2007.

Prior to the iconic daytime game show, Barker also briefly hosted other game shows, such as Truth or Consequences, That’s My Line, and The Family Game. Barker did not do a lot of straightforward acting, but he did appear on a few episodes of the short-lived late ’90s sitcom Something So Right as the lead character’s father, as well as an episode of Bonanza in the ’60s.

The seminal TV host did, however, appear as himself in many cameos throughout the years. Most famously, he played himself in the Adam Sandler film Happy Gilmore and was partnered with Sandler’s character for a celebrity golf tournament. His scenes are comedy classics, with Sandler’s Gilmore picking a fight with Barker and the TV host subsequently serving him up an effective beatdown.

Barker had experienced a few health issues during the latter years of his life. In October 2018, he was transported to the hospital due to non-emergency back problems. At the time, his manager explained that “it was painful and difficult to get him in a private vehicle” but that they “decided it was easier and better for him.” Just a day later he was said to be “awake and alert” as well as “resting and going through evaluations.”

Back in 2015, Barker experienced another scary situation, when he suffered a fall and hit his head while out in the front yard of his home. He later explained what happened. “I just went for a little stroll. Harmless, and I ended up in the hospital,” Barker said half-jokingly, adding that the fall took place after he stubbed his toe.

“I started to fall forward, and I didn’t want to land on the cement so I twisted and landed right over here but my head was on the cement and so I cut my head all up and cut my knee and scraped it,” he revealed. Barker was not married at the time of his death, and he did not have any children.