US TV host Bob Barker, who was the face of 'The Price is Right' for 35 years, has died at the age of 99, his publicist said.
Mr Barker, who hosted the game show from 1972 to 2007, won 19 Daytime Emmy awards, the top US television honours, and was also known for a memorable comic turn playing himself in the hit 1996 film Happy Gilmore, beating up a character played by Adam Sandler.
His publicist Roger Neal said Mr Barker died this morning.
The Price Is Right, in which contestants tried to guess the price of various consumer products and played a slew of games to win prizes, became a US pop culture institution on daytime TV with the smooth-talking Mr Barker at the helm for 6,586 episodes.
A studio announcer would shout 'Come on down!' as one by one excited contestants would trot out of a studio audience down to the stage.
Exuberant contestants occasionally would bear-hug and even tackle Mr Barker.
"Can I kiss you?" a woman once inquired during a show.
"No, I'm working," deadpanned Mr Barker, known for his good-natured humour. "Meet me in the parking lot later."
Over the years, he handed out more than $300m (€277m) in cash and prizes like cars, appliances and trips.
"I think TV hosts are like pies and some people like apple and some cherry and some chocolate," Mr Barker told the Hartford Courant in 2009.
"I'm just very fortunate that they liked me well enough to invite me into their homes for 50 years."
The Price Is Right became the longest-running game show on US television.
Mr Barker returned to the show in 2013 to mark his 90th birthday and again in 2015 for an April Fools' Day episode.
Mr Barker was known for pro-animal causes and campaigned for them into his 90s.
He would end episodes of The Price Is Right by urging viewers to get their pets spayed and neutered to control the animal population and began a foundation to subsidise the practices.
He also spoke out against the treatment of animals in zoos, rodeos and circuses.
In 1987, Mr Barker quit as long-time host of the Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants when pageant officials refused to stop draping contestants in fur coats.
Mr Barker gave millions of dollars to pro-animal causes, including donating $5m (€4.63m) for a 1,200-ton ship named the Bob Barker that was operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to stop Japanese whaling ships from killing whales off Antarctica.
Mr Barker, born on 12 Dec 1923, in Darrington, Washington, began his career in radio.
In 1956, he was hired to host a TV version of the radio quiz show Truth or Consequences on NBC, and stayed with the program until 1975.
Even before his stint on that show wrapped up, he began hosting The Price Is Right on CBS.
Mr Barker did not remarry after his wife Dorothy died of cancer in 1981.
