With his boyish face, horn-rimmed spectacles and engaging personality, Pittsburgh native Bill Cullen became the the dean of game show hosts.
Born in 1920, he was stricken with infantile paralysis, which gave him a permanent limp. In 1939, he was 19 and working at his father’s South Side garage when the Pittsburgh radio station WWSW-FM hired him as an unpaid announcer and disc jockey.
In 1944, he moved to New York and benefited from the shortage of network personnel caused by World War II. A week after he arrived, Columbia Broadcasting hired him as a staff radio announcer.
That marked the start of a 40-year career in which Mr. Cullen hosted more than a dozen game shows, some of which became definitive staples of American popular culture. He appeared on “Give and Take,” “The Price is Right,” “Place the Face,” “Name That Tune,” “$25,000 Pyramid” and “The Joker’s Wild.”
In 1952, he became a glib panelist on “I’ve Got a Secret,” remaining on the program for its entire 15-year run through 1967 and often serving as a host. His down-to-earth, witty style proved popular with American viewers.
Mr. Cullen also hosted the original version of “Price is Right” from 1957 to 1964 on NBC and later on ABC.
Groucho Marx, who hosted “You Bet Your Life,” called Mr. Cullen “the second wittiest man in the business.”
In the late 1950s, Mr. Cullen was on the air 25 hours and 30 minutes each week, exceeding the amount of air time logged by famed broadcaster Arthur Godfrey at the peak of his career.
When he died from lung cancer at age 70 in 1990, game show host Pat Sajak called him “a broadcaster’s broadcaster.”
