By Mark Heim 

Legendary game show host Bob Barker reacts during filming of a special prime-time episode of “The Price Is Right,” in Los Angeles on April 17, 2007, celebrating his retirement and career on the popular game show. Barker died Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, at his home in Los Angeles, his publicist Roger Neal said. The long-time game show host was 99. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)AP

Bob Barker, the former host of “The Price is Right,” died Saturday. He was 99 years old.

The iconic game show host died peacefully at his Los Angeles home of natural causes, his representative told TMZ.

“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 Saturday.

“I am 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 yrs. He will be missed.”

Barker is just as remembered for playing himself in the Adam Sandler golf movie “Happy Gilmore,” in which he and Sandler get into a fist fight during a pro-am golf tournament.

Before “Price is Right,” Barker hosted “Truth or Consequences” in 1956 until 1975. But it was “Price is Right” where he made his biggest mark, hosting the game show for more than three decades until he retired in 2007.

Drew Carey took over as host, and the show continues to be popular.

According to TMZ, Barker, who was an advocate for animal rights, fought skin cancer for years, and suffered falls 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.

Barker, however, was not immune to controversy. In 1994, a former “Price Is Right” model accused him in a lawsuit of threatening to fire her if she didn’t have sex with him. Although the model, Dian Parkinson — a 19-year veteran of the show who had been fired the previous year — ultimately dropped the suit, Barker was forced to admit publicly that the two had had a less-than-professional relationship off screen.

Barker was previously married to wife Dorothy Jo for 36 years before her death in 1981. The couple had no children, and the television host never remarried.

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