He married his third wife, Mary, in 2000. Their daughter, Della, died of a drug overdose in 1998. He wrote the 1962 hit record "Palisades Park," which was recorded by Freddy Cannon.īarris's first marriage, to Lynn Levy, ended in divorce.
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Seeking escape from the Hollywood rat race, he moved to a villa in the south of France in the 1980s with his girlfriend and future second wife, Robin Altman, and made only infrequent returns to his old haunts over the next two decades.īack in the news in 2002 to help publicize "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," Barris said his shows were a forerunner to today's popular reality TV series.īorn in Philadelphia in 1929, Charles Barris was left destitute, along with his sister and their mother, when his dentist father died of a stroke.Īfter graduating from the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1953, he took a series of jobs, including book salesman and fight promoter.Īfter being dropped from a low-level job at NBC, he found work at ABC, where he persuaded his bosses to let him open a Hollywood office, from which he launched his game-show empire. "Have you ever heard the CIA acknowledge someone was an assassin?" he once asked. "Chuck Barris has never been employed by the CIA and the allegation that he was a hired assassin is absurd," Crispell added.īarris, who offered no corroboration of his claims, was unmoved. "It sounds like he has been standing too close to the gong all those years," quipped CIA spokesman Tom Crispell. The book (and the 2002 film based on it, directed by George Clooney) were widely dismissed by disbelievers who said the creator of some of television's most lowbrow game shows had allowed his imagination to run wild when he claimed to have spent his spare time travelling the world, quietly rubbing out enemies of the United States. In it, he claimed to have been a CIA assassin. He directed and starred in "The Gong Show Movie," a thundering failure that stayed in theatres only a week.Īfterward, a distraught Barris checked into a New York hotel and wrote his autobiography, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," in two months. He called himself "The King of Daytime Television," but to critics he was "The King of Schlock" or "The Baron of Bad Taste."Īs "The Gong Show" and Barris' other series were slipping, he sold his company for a reported $100 million in 1980 and decided to go into films. One example was the late country musician BoxCar Willie, who was a 1977 "Gong Show" winner. Occasionally, someone would actually launch a successful career through the show. The victims would then be mercilessly berated by the manic Barris, with a hat often yanked down over his eyes and ears, and a crew of second-tier celebrities. When the latter appeared on the show, Barris would strike an oversize gong, the show's equivalent of vaudeville's hook. Barris died on March 21, 2017, of natural. He sold his production company in 1987, for a reported 100 million (roughly 215 million in today's dollars). Patterned after the Major Bowes Amateur Hour show that was a radio hit in the 1930s, the program featured performers who had peculiar talents and, often, no talent at all. Charles Hirsch Barris was an American game show creator, producer, and host, known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. The grinning, curly-haired Barris became a familiar face as creator and host of "The Gong Show," which aired from 1976 to 1980. New products included "The Newlywed Game," ''The Parent Game," ''The Family Game" and even "The Game Game."Īt one point Barris was supplying the television networks with 27 hours of entertainment a week, mostly in five-days-a-week daytime game shows. And in the '90s, Barris survived lung cancer.Celebrities and future celebrities who appeared as contestants included Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Martin and a pre-"Charlie's Angels" Farrah Fawcett, introduced as "an accomplished artist and sculptress" with a dream to open her own gallery.Īfter the show became a hit on both daytime and nighttime TV, the Barris machine accelerated. Della struggled with addiction and died of an overdose in 1998. He had only one child, Della, with first wife Lyn Levy. But while he was filing a report with the police his car was stolen, with his grandmother's body still tied to the roof. Barris put her body in a sleeping bag and brought her to town. When he was 24 he went camping with his grandmother, who died in the night. In the book, he claims to have been a CIA assassin, something the CIA denies.īarris's life had its share of tragedy.
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His autobiography, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was adapted to a movie in 2002, directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell as Barris. At the last second, Barris stepped up to replace him and became the host of The Gong Show.Īside from creating and occasionally hosting game shows, Barris continued to write music, including several game show themes. Originally set to host The Gong Show was John Baurbor, but he didn't understand the parody element of the show and thought of it as a straight talent show.
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