Bob Barker
| Bob Barker | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Robert William Barker December 12, 1923 Darrington, Washington, U.S. |
| Occupation | Television personality Game show host |
| Years active | 1950–present |
| Spouse(s) | Dorothy Jo Gideon (m. 1945; d. 1981) |
Robert William "Bob" Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American former television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS's The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history, and for hosting Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1974.
Born in Darrington, Washington to modest circumstances, Barker enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II. Barker worked part-time in radio while he attended college. In 1950, Barker moved to California in order to pursue a career in broadcasting. He was given his own radio show, The Bob Barker Show, which ran for the next six years. Barker began his game show career in 1956, hosting Truth or Consequences. From there, he hosted various game shows as well as the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants from 1967 to 1987 giving him the distinction of being the longest serving host of these pageants. Eventually, he began hosting The Price Is Right in 1972. When his wife Dorothy Jo died, Barker became an advocate for animal rights and of animal-rights activism, supporting groups such as the United Activists for Animal Rights and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. In 2007, Barker retired from hosting The Price Is Right after celebrating his 50-year career on television.
Barker was born in Darrington, Washington, and spent most of his youth on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885–1940, list Barker as an official member of the Sioux tribe. His mother, Matilda ("Tillie") Valandra (née Matilda Kent Tarleton), was a school teacher; his father, Byron John Barker, was the foreman on the electrical high line through the state of Washington. Barker is 1/8 Sioux. While in Washington, his father fell from a tower and sustained an injury which resulted in his death in 1929. Barker has a half-brother, Kent Valandra, from Matilda's subsequent remarriage. In 1931, the family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Barker graduated from Central High School in 1941.
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