Home Actors Actresses Supermodels Movies Musicians Athletes
ACTORS
Bob Barker
Biography Filmography Links Contact Galleries
Birthplace: Darrington, Washington, USA
The ultimate TV game show host, from
that uncannily appropriate name--even though it is his birthname--to a
middle-aged model's look and endlessly genial style that perfectly embodies
the "beat the system and win something" thrust behind capitalist
culture's enduring fascination with the genre.
After growing up near a Native American reservation in South Dakota where
his mother taught, Bob Barker broke into radio in Springfield MO while
attending college. He later worked in Palm Beach FL and Southern California
radio and local TV before producer-TV personality Ralph Edwards heard
Barker's patented smooth delivery on the air and decided that he would
be perfect to take over the TV game show, "Truth or Consequences".
Beginning in 1956, Barker would stay with the show for 18 years, first
with NBC and later in syndication, cheerfully cajoling participants who
failed to answer a trick question "truthfully" and as a result
had to pay the embarrassing "consequences" in order to win a
prize.
For a time Barker's hosting duties on "Truth" overlapped with his producing and starring work on an even more successful game show with which his name is synonymous--"The Price Is Right" (1972- ). For many years America's most-watched game show, and the only one to sustain a one-hour format, "Price" featured Barker playing tempter, comic foil and nursemaid to an endless series of contestants asked to "Come on down!" to bid on a wide range of everyday products in order to win them and lavish ancillary prizes. Barker has regularly shown a surprisingly sly wit given his gentlemanly persona, blithely busting the chops of eager bidders too excited to listen carefully. He has also had to cope with several surprising moments, most famously the time a full-figured woman clad in a tube top ran down to contestant's row so quickly and jumped up and down so vigorously that she rendered herself topless for some time before noticing, with TV screens nationwide offering the protective covering of a censor's black bar across the offending body parts.
A later landmark occurred in the early 90s, when Barker, aging beautifully as only celebrities can afford to, ventured onstage without his standard brunet hair to display a more "natural" look--the silvery white his hair had been for some time. Cannily conscious of his image as an audience pleaser, Barker calmly inquired whether viewers preferred his "new" look or wanted him to continue coloring his hair. Needless, to say, Barker's snow-white scalp has only increased his rating in tabloid "sex symbol" polls. As with other gray-haired personalities surrounded by younger women, Barker found the dialectic of father figure and aging stud (embodied in the harem of models on the show coyly billed as "Barker's Beauties") carried to dizzying new heights.
An amiable and highly professional TV personality
and producer, Barker was the perfect person to introduce, with the proper
blend of excitement and control, the annually televised "Tournament
of Roses" parade. He was also the natural choice to host "Miss
USA" and "Miss Universe" pageants for several decades,
interrupting his duties only when his animal rights activism deigned otherwise.
Barker has been a highly vocal spokesperson for the care and protection
of animals both in the home and in the entertainment industry, and though
some have accused him of proselytizing, he daily reminds viewers of "Price"
to have their pets spayed or neutered. An undeniably showmanlike combination
of the glib and the sincere, Barker could even offer a cause to fight
for and the good citizenship connoted by pet population control alongside
the chance to win a new car.
"Price Is Right Primetime Specials,
The" (2002) TV Series .... Host
Price is Right 30th Anniversary Special, The (2002) (TV) .... Host
Price Is Right 25th Anniversary Special, The (1996) (TV)
Happy Gilmore (1996) .... Himself
Circus of the Stars #4 (1979) (TV)
Miss Universe Pageant (1976) (TV) .... Host
"Tattletales" (1974) TV Series .... Sub-Host (1975, 1976)
"Match Game PM" (1975) TV Series .... Himself/guest panlist
"Match Game 73" (1973) TV Series .... Himself/guest panlist
... aka "Match Game 74" (1974) (USA: second season title)
... aka "Match Game 75" (1975) (USA: third season title)
... aka "Match Game 76" (1976) (USA: fourth season title)
... aka "Match Game 77" (1977) (USA: fifth season title)
... aka "Match Game 78" (1978) (USA: sixth season title)
... aka "Match Game 79" (1979) (USA: seventh season title)
... aka "Match Game" (1979) (USA: syndication title)
"Price Is Right, The" (1972) TV Series .... Host (1972-Present
CBS Version & 1976-1979 syndicated version)
... aka "New Price Is Right, The" (1972)
"Family Game, The" (1967) TV Series .... Host (1967)
"Dream Girl of '67" (1966) TV Series .... Sub-Host (Jun. 12-16,
1967)
"Truth or Consequences" (1950) TV Series .... Emcee, Syndicated
(1956-1974)
... aka "All New Truth and Consequences, The" (1987) (USA: new
title)
... aka "New Truth and Consequences, The" (1977) (USA: new title)
Bob Barker - Ultimate resources for pictures, wallpapers and biography
c/o 'The Price Is Right'
CBS Television City
7800 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
USA
