Chuck Barris, 'Gong Show' host who claimed he was a CIA assassin, dies at 87
Chuck Barris, the man who gave us game shows like The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show, has died at 87.
Publicist Paul Shefrin, speaking on behalf of Barris' family, confirmed to the Associated Press that the self-proclaimed "King of Daytime Television" died at his home in Palisades Park, N.Y.
Born in Philadelphia in 1929, Charles Barris had a hardscrabble youth after his dentist father died of a stroke, leaving his family destitute.
He graduated from what is now Drexel University in 1953 and worked odd jobs until he found his way into television through a short-lived entry level position at NBC, which he followed with a gig at ABC. It was there that he began building his game-show empire.
During this period, Barris wrote the 1962 hit song Palisades Park, which was recorded by Freddy Cannon, but his true calling was game shows.
He made an immediate impact on the genre with The Dating Game, which premiered in 1966 and featured a young woman or man posing tongue-in-cheek risqué questions to three prospective dates who were hidden behind a screen. Jim Lange served as the original host and Chuck Woolery emceed the show during its final years.
The Dating Game also introduced several future celebrities to the audience, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sally Field, John Ritter and a pre-Charlie's Angels Farrah Fawcett.
Barris also created and hosted The Gong Show (1976-1980), which was synonymous with 1970s game-show kitsch.
The Gong Show, a progenitor of America's Got Talent, repackaged vaudeville for TV, with assorted acts of varying talent levels auditioning on air. Instead of receiving three strikes and being torn to shreds by Simon Cowell, Barris would beat a gong and the condemned performer would be mocked by B-list celebs.
A number of stars avoided getting gonged and went on to become famous: comedians Steve Martin and Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens; country musician BoxCar Willie; Cheryl Lynn, who would go on to record the disco hit Got to Be Real; and Andrea McArdle, who would originate the title role of Annie on Broadway in 1977.
Barris was the Mark Burnett of his day, supplying network TV with 27 hours worth of game-show programming at his peak. But by 1980, he realized his heyday was coming to an end and sold his production company for a reported $100 million.
His next undertaking, movie production, was not as successful and his Gong Show Movie adaptation stayed in theaters for only one week.
That brought on a crisis of confidence and Barris holed up in a New York hotel for two months writing his 1984 memoir Confessions of A Dangerous Mind, in which he claimed to have been a CIA assassin. It was adapted into a 2002 film directed by George Clooney.
He would write three other books, including 1993's The Game Show King: A Confession and 2004's Bad Grass Never Dies: A Sequel to Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Its claims that a game-show host spent his spare time traveling the world taking out bad guys were met with raised eyebrows.
“It sounds like he has been standing too close to the gong all those years,” quipped CIA spokesman Tom Crispell. “Chuck Barris has never been employed by the CIA and the allegation that he was a hired assassin is absurd."
Barris took the CIA's response as tacit confirmation, noting, “Have you ever heard the CIA acknowledge someone was an assassin?”
Barris was married three times: first to Lyn Levy, the niece of a CBS founder, which lasted from 1957-1976. The marriage produced Barris' only child, daughter Della, who died of a drug overdose in 1998 at age 36.
In 2010, he wrote about her substance-abuse struggles in Della: A Memoir of My Daughter.
In 1980, he married Robin Altman; they divorced in 1999 and he married his third and final wife, Mary, in 2000.
That year, he also suffered a health crisis: part of one lung had to be removed due to cancer and a post-operative infection led to a month in intensive care.
Contributing: Joscelyn Payne and Bob Thomas, Associated Press