Illness and Death
On September 11, 2001, Roddy was diagnosed with colon cancer. He temporarily took a leave of absence to undergo and recover from surgery and chemotherapy. Roddy returned a month later. A year later, the colon cancer returned, and Roddy temporarily took another leave of absence to undergo and recover from surgery on September 20, 2002. Again, he recovered within a month. In March 2003, Roddy was diagnosed with breast cancer. He underwent surgery and afterwards, experienced major complications. As a result, Roddy was unable to announce for The Price Is Right for the rest of Season 31. The diagnoses led to Roddy becoming a spokesperson for early detection of cancer in his last years. In an interview with CBS, Roddy commented to the general public:
| “ | I could have prevented all this with a colonoscopy, and of course, that's the campaign I've been on since I had the first surgery. To everybody out there, get a mammogram! It can happen to men, too. | ” |
Despite Roddy's illness for over two years, he continued to announce for The Price Is Right for as long as he was able to, up until his last hospitalization two months before his death on October 27, 2003, less than a month after his 66th birthday. When he was away, several substitute announcers filled in for him, most often Burton Richardson and Randy West; however, he was eventually replaced by Rich Fields in April 2004. Roddy's final announced episode aired on October 20, 2003, just one week before his death.
Roddy is interred at Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas.
Roddy was given a short tribute recorded shortly afterwards as a segment that lasted eighteen seconds, narrated by Barker, which aired before the start of a later episode. It was mocked by Howard Stern for its brevity. Craig Kilborn, then in his final season as host of The Late Late Show, paid tribute to Roddy (a frequent guest and friend of Kilborn's) in a lengthy clip montage to end the October 28, 2003 show.
In a similar manner to the 18-second tribute, Roddy is mentioned a single time in Barker's autobiography, "Priceless Memories", when Barker lists the show's announcers since 1972.
Read more about this topic: Rod Roddy
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