The Price Is Right host Bob Parker has passed away at his Hollywood home at the age of 99, his longtime publicist Rogen Neal confirmed.
In a heartbreaking statement obtained by NBC News, Neal said: “It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us.”
Barker’s grieving girlfriend, Nancy Burnet, also spoke out and said she is ‘so proud of the trailblazing work’ they accomplished ‘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.’
In a statement obtained by People, Burnet said: “We were great friends over these 40 yrs. He will be missed.”
Barker was a longtime host of The Price Is Right, which had been on air since the 50s.
Born Robert William Barker on December 12, 1923, Bob moved to South Dakota and lived on a Sioux Indian reservation with his mother.
This came after Byron John Barker passed away following an accident in his workplace. His mother Matilda Kent Tarleton remarried and moved to Missouri.
Barker served two years in the Navy before he returned to Missouri, where he attended Drury College and finished a degree in economics.
He was then hired at a radio station in Florida before he moved in California in 1950 where he directed a radio program called ‘The Bob Barker Show.’
Only six years later, he became the host of Truth or Consequences until it ended 18 years later.
Throughout his career, he received 19 Daytime Emmys and an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.
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