‘Let’s Make a Deal’ co-creator and host

Monty Hall, the genial host and co-creator of “Let’s Make a Deal,” the game show on which contestants in outlandish costumes shriek and leap at the chance to see if they will win the big prize or the booby prize behind door No. 3, died at his home in Beverly Hills on Saturday. He was 96.

A daughter, Joanna Gleason, confirmed his death. She said the cause was heart failure.

“Let’s Make a Deal” had its premiere in late 1963 and, with some interruptions, has been a television phenomenon ever since.

When Mr. Hall first roamed among the audience members who filled the “trading floor” in an NBC studio in Burbank there was nothing zany about them. But wouldbe deal makers were soon showing up wearing live-bird hats, Tom Sawyer costumes or boxes resembling refrigerators. Some simply waved signs pleading, “Pick Me.”

It was all for the chance to barter their way to a big prize. At the end of the show, the two biggest winners were given a shot at the Big Deal. They could trade their winnings for whatever was behind one of three doors: a new car, perhaps, or $15,000 in cash, or, if they were not so lucky, something worth less than what they had traded. All the while, the affable, smooth-talking Hall gave no hint of where the treasure might lie.

Mr. Hall is survived by two daughters, Gleason, a Tony Award-winning actress, and Sharon Hall, a television executive; and a son, Richard, a producer. His wife of almost 70 years, the former Marilyn Plottel, an Emmy Award-winning television producer, died in June.