Reuben Klamer, an inventor who dreamed up the Game of Life and many other toys and games, died Sept. 14 at his home in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. He was 99.

His creations included his own version of the hula hoop and a variation on the Erector Set. He came up with a Pink Panther show car built on an Oldsmobile chassis, which he used to help promote the “Pink Panther” cartoon series. He also worked closely with television producers and built props for popular shows, including the Starfleet phaser rifle for the original “Star Trek” series, and a Napoleon Solo gun for “The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 

But Mr. Klamer’s best-known invention was the Game of Life, a board game introduced in 1960 in which the winner was the person who accumulated the most money. The Game of Life has sold more than 70 million copies in 59 countries, and has been the best-selling board game in Japan for more than 50 years. In the United States, it became such a part of the culture that it was inducted into the permanent Archives of Family Life at the Smithsonian Institution in 1981.