Chuck Barris

Charles Hirsch Barris (June 3, 1929 – March 21, 2017) was an American game show creator, producer, and host, author, and songwriter. A key crew member of several hugely successful game shows, he was the creator of The Dating Game (1965–2021), the original producer of The Newlywed Game (1966–2013) both for the ABC network and syndication, and the host and producer of The Gong Show from 1976 to 1980, for the NBC network and syndication.

His songwriting credits include "Palisades Park", first recorded by Freddy Cannon in 1962 and also recorded by the Ramones in 1989, and he wrote three novels and four memoirs. Barris made unsubstantiated claims that in parallel to his career on television, he was an active international assassin for the CIA in the 1960s and the 1970s, including in his 1984 memoir Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was adapted into a 2002 film of the same name by director George Clooney and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, starring Sam Rockwell as Barris, and in which his alleged CIA career is mostly portrayed in an absurdist manner.

Early life

Barris was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 3, 1929, the son of Edith (née Cohen) and Nathaniel Barris, a dentist. He was raised in Lower Merion Township and attended Lower Merion High School. His uncle was singer, songwriter and actor Harry Barris. He graduated in 1953 from Drexel University where he was a columnist for the student newspaper, The Triangle.