When it comes to OG game show hosts, Bob Barker is one of the best. As The Price Is Right emcee for nearly four decades, he delighted audiences with his quick wit and affable demeanor. He was also an early celebrity advocate for animal rights and has spent much of his career supporting charitable causes.
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Now 97 years old, the retired TV legend has a remarkable career to look back on. He also has a very comfortable lifestyle thanks to his many decades in the business. Here’s an inside look at Bob Barker’s net worth and how he uses his money to make the world a better place.
The History Of Bob Barker’s Career
Long before Drew Carey held the mic, Bob Barker was the beloved host of The Price Is Right. He fronted the popular CBS game show for 35 years, from 1972 until 2007. After retiring at the age of 84, he made a number of memorable returns to the show (much to audiences’ delight), including a 2013 guest-hosting stint to celebrate his 90th birthday.
While Barker is best known for hosting The Price Is Right, he was no stranger to the game show scene when he landed the job. For nearly 20 years, he had served as the front man for another successful game show, Truth or Consequences. He got that job all the way back in 1956—when he was 33 years old—and credits it as his big break into show business.
“That telephone call [telling me I got the job] was and will always be the most important thing that ever happened to me professionally,” Barker said. “I had done some local television, but not much, and I had done radio on a regional network. But I had never done a national show. All the wonderful things that have happened to me, it all began with that telephone call.”
Over the course of his decades-long career, Barker has won 19 Emmy Awards, including five for Outstanding Game Show Host. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2004 and Time magazine named him the Greatest Game Show Host of All-Time in 2007. He was even dubbed television’s “Most Durable Performer” by the Guinness Book of World Records for completing 3,524 consecutive hosting performances on Truth or Consequences.
Barker has made a number of memorable cameo appearances throughout his career, as well, including turns on The Nanny, How I Met Your Mother, and in the hilarious 1996 Adam Sandler comedy, Happy Gilmore. He also emceed the Miss Universe and Miss America pageants from 1967 until 1987.
The Money–What Bob Barker Earned, And How He Spent It
So just how much money did Barker rake in as one of the most popular and enduring television personalities of all time? While he’s never publicly disclosed his earnings, Celebritynetworth.com estimates Barker’s salary for The Price Is Right to have been approximately $10 million a year during his last decade on the show.
Though it’s hard to know just how much game show hosts were paid back in the ’50s and ‘60s, Barker’s two-decade stint on Truth or Consequences most likely earned him a sizable sum. As did his 20-year tenure as host of two of the nation’s most popular beauty pageants.
But the one thing that’s always been obvious about this TV legend is that he’s a very generous man when it comes to his wealth. A fervent support of animal rights, he’s made many charitable contributions to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), including a 2.5 million-dollar donation that enabled the organization to open an office in Los Angeles. He also gave up his lucrative Miss Universe hosting gig in 1988 when the pageant would not remove fur coats and other animal items from the prize list.
In 2004, Barker donated $1 million to Columbia Law School to support the study of animal rights. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society benefited from the game show host’s kindness in 2010 as well, when he donated a whopping $5 million to help preserve ocean wildlife. Other charitable donations doled out by The Price Is Right star include $2 million to the Semper Fi Fund to benefit injured veterans and $1 million to Drury University (his alma mater) to support its animal studies program.
These are just some of the incredible ways The Price Is Right star has used his fortune to better the world. It’s highly likely that he’s made many other generous donations that have been kept private.
Bob Barker’s Net Worth
According to Celebritynetworth.com, Bob Barker’s current net worth is approximately $70 million. It’s unclear who stands to inherit his fortune once he’s passed on—while Barker was married to his high school sweetheart for more than 35 years, the couple did not have children. He hasn’t remarried since his wife passed away from lung cancer in 1981.
But one thing’s for certain—as a supporter of animal rights since the early 1980s, Barker has been one of the most influential and outspoken celebrity activists for the cause. “The animal rights movement is just like huge snowball on a mountain,” he said in 2015. “Americans love their pets, so it’s just a matter of making people aware. They don’t know how other animals are suffering.”