'Gong Show' host and game show creator Chuck Barris dies at 87

Chuck Barris, the renowned game show creator and host of The Gong Show, died on Tuesday, March 21, from natural causes. He was 87.

According to his publicist Paul Shefrin, Barris passed away Tuesday afternoon at his home in Palisades, New York.

Barris is credited with creating the popular game shows The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show.

He first created The Dating Game in 1966, where either one female asked three males questions or vice versa to figure out who would be the best date.  Celebrities such as Steve Martin and Michael Jackson famously played the game.

After The Dating Game took off, Barris kept pumping out more hit game shows, including The Newlywed Game, The Parent Game and even The Game Game.

At a high point in his career, Barris was providing television networks with 27 hours of mainly game show entertainment a week, as reported by the Associated Press.

Barris finally became the face of one of his creations with The Gong Show in 1976.  The show highlighted people's talents, however, if someone did not have a great talent the host would bang a gong and the performer would be taken off the stage.

The show was so popular that it became a movie called The Gong Show Movie. It unfortunately did not see the success the television show did.

In the 1980s, Barris sought to escape Hollywood.  He moved to France with his future second wife, Robin Altman.  Since then, he only made occasional visits back to the spotlight.

His daughter, Delia, with first wife Lynn Levy, died of a drug overdose in 1998.  Barris is survived by his third wife, Mary.

Donations can be made under his name to the New York Police Foundation, as reported by Variety.