Engaged at 98; Bob Barker Shares Secrets to a Long Life

Anyone twenty-one or older probably has memories of watching Bob Barker host The Price is Right game show. The Showcase Showdown, The Big Wheel, Plinko, The Cliffhangers Game, and so many more where Bob Barker was the host, referee, and judge. Bob hosted the show from 1972-2007, thirty-five years before handing the microphone over to Drew Carey.

Bob Barker was loved by so many people, but none more than the “love of his life,” his wife Dorothy whom he was married to for more than 35 years. They met at an Ella Fitzgerald concert in the mid-1930s, and never had kids. Sadly, Dorothy passed away in 1981.

According to a recent interview in AmoMama Barker did meet someone new and has been “in a longtime relationship with his partner, Nancy Burnet.” The two met a couple of years after Dorothy’s passing at an animal adoption event and formed an instant connection with their love of animals. In the interview, Nancy gave an update on Bob saying, “He’s doing pretty well…he’s happy, he’s engaged. He’s just doing remarkably well for almost 99 years of age.” He turns 99 on December 12th. She also confirmed that, yes, the two of them are engaged.

No word if Bob stays in touch with “Barker’s Beauties,” models Dian Parkinson, Holly Halstrom, and Janice Pennington. Dian turns 78 next month, Holly just turned 70, and Janice is 80 years old.

American game show host Bob Barker sits as he poses with three of the so-called ‘Barker’s Beauties’ models, (left to right) Dian Parkinson, Holly Halstrom, and Janice Pennington, of the CBS game show ‘The Price is Right,’ Los Angeles, California, July 1, 1986. Parkinson was with the show from 1975 to 1993, Halstrom from 1977 to 1995, and Pennington from 1972 to 2000. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

So, what is Mr. Barker’s secret to a long life? According to the article, “Bob claims that he has lasted as long as he has, mainly due to two things, namely vegetarianism and staying active.”

It was really hard to write this article without using the phrase “Come on down!” And remember, have your pets spayed or neutered!

Keanu Reeves' 10 Best Films

• Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

  The rom-com is based on William Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Hero (Kate Beckinsale) and her fiance Claudio (Robert Sean Leonard) team up with his commanding officer, Don Pedro (Denzel Washington), the week before their wedding to hatch a matchmaking scheme. Their targets are sharp-witted duo Benedick (Kenneth Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson) — a tough task indeed, considering their corresponding distaste for love and each other. Meanwhile, meddling Don John (Keanu Reeves) plots to ruin the wedding.

• Point Break (1991)

  After a string of bizarre bank robberies in Southern California, with the crooks donning masks of various former presidents, a federal agent, Johnny Utah (Reeves), infiltrates the suspected gang. But this is no ordinary group of robbers. They’re surfers — led by the charismatic Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) — who are addicted to the rush of thievery. But when Utah falls in love with a female surfer, Tyler (Lori Petty), who is close to the gang, it complicates his sense of duty.

• Speed (1994)

  Los Angeles police officer Jack Traven (Reeves) angers retired bomb squad member Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) by foiling his attempt at taking hostages. In revenge, Payne arms a bus with a bomb that will explode if it drops below 50 miles per hour. With the help of spunky passenger Annie (Sandra Bullock), Jack and his partner Harry (Jeff Daniels) try to save the people on the bus before the bomb goes off, while also trying to figure out how Payne is monitoring them.

• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

  Francis Ford Coppola directs this film adaptation based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Count Dracula (Gary Oldman), a 15th-century prince, is condemned to live off the blood of the living for eternity. Young lawyer Jonathan Harker (Reeves) is sent to Dracula’s castle to finalize a land deal, but when the Count sees a photo of Harker’s fiancée, Mina Murray (Winona Ryder), the spitting image of his dead wife, Elisabeta, he imprisons him and sets off for London to track her down.

• Hardball (1994)

  For a change of pace, Reeves stars in this sports film as Conor, a ticket scalper, gambler and Little League coach for a rag-tag team of kids in one of the toughest parts of Chicago. He’s no role model, but his buddy Jimmy won’t help him pay off his gambling debts unless Conor coaches Jimmy’s corporately sponsored team. Surprising even himself, Conor becomes attached to his players — and to their attractive schoolteacher (Diane Lane) — and drawn into their tough and sometimes tragic lives.

• Constantine (2005)

  Based on the DC/Vertigo Hellblazer comics, Reeves stars as demon hunter John Constantine. As a suicide survivor, he has literally been to hell and back — and he knows that when he dies, he’s got a one-way ticket to Satan’s realm… unless he can earn enough goodwill to climb God’s stairway to heaven. While helping policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) investigate her identical twin’s apparent suicide, Constantine becomes caught up in a supernatural plot involving both demonic and angelic forces.

• John Wick (2014)

  You do NOT mess with this man’s dog. When a gangster’s son steals his car and kills his dog, fearless ex-hitman John Wick takes on the entire mob to get his revenge. The movie has been a success, leading to three sequels. The fourth installment of the John Wick franchise is set to release March 24, 2023.

• Devil's Advocate (1997)

  Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) accepts a high-powered position at a New York law firm headed by legal shark John Milton (Al Pacino). As Kevin moves up in the firm’s ranks, his wife, Mary Ann (Charlize Theron), has several frightening, mystical experiences that begin to warp her sense of reality. With the stakes getting higher with each case, Kevin quickly learns that his mentor is quite literally the Devil himself.

• The Matrix (1999)

  Keanu is the One, I mean, Neo. In his undeniably most iconic role, Neo believes that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) can answer his question — “What is the Matrix?” Neo is contacted by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who leads him into an underworld where he meets Morpheus. They fight a brutal battle for their lives against a team of secret agents.

• My Own Private Idaho (1991)

  In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves) is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike’s estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.