Gene Barry

Gene Barry, born Eugene Klass on June 14, 1919, in New York City, was an American actor and singer who worked across stage, screen, and television. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Latvia and Poland, and he grew up in Brooklyn, where he attended New Utrecht High School. As a child he demonstrated an aptitude for singing and violin, and his vocal ability earned him a scholarship to the Chatham Square School of Music in Greenwich Village, where he studied for two years.

Barry chose his professional name as a tribute to John Barrymore and made his Broadway debut in 1942 in a revival of Sigmund Romberg's The New Moon, playing Captain Paul Duval. That same year he appeared in Rosalinda as Falke. In 1943 he portrayed Nova Kovich in The Merry Widow, and in 1944 he played Lieutenant Bunin in Catherine Was Great, where he met actress Betty Claire Kalb, known professionally as Julie Carson, whom he married on October 22, 1944. He took on the dual roles of Dorante and Comte De Chateau-Gaillard in The Would-Be Gentleman in 1946, and in 1950 he appeared as The Doctor in Happy as Larry and performed in the musical revue Bless You All. His Broadway career, which spanned 1942 to 1984, also included Destry Rides Again and The Merry Widow Burlesque.

Barry's film career began in 1951 when he was cast as Dr. Frank Addison in The Atomic City, released in 1952. The following year he played Dr. Clayton Forrester in the science fiction film The War of the Worlds, a role for which he remains widely recognized. Decades later, he made a cameo appearance alongside his 1953 co-star Ann Robinson in Steven Spielberg's 2005 remake of War of the Worlds.

Television became a central part of Barry's career beginning in 1950, when he appeared with the NBC Television Opera Theatre. In 1955 he joined the CBS anthology series Appointment with Adventure and took on a recurring role in Our Miss Brooks as Gene Talbot, the physical education teacher and new romantic interest of Eve Arden's character. The series was canceled in 1956. From 1958 to 1961, NBC broadcast Bat Masterson, in which Barry portrayed the fictionalized title character. He reprised the role in 1990 for two episodes of Guns of Paradise and again in 1991 for The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, both times alongside Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp.

Barry starred next in Burke's Law on ABC-TV, which ran from September 20, 1963, to May 5, 1965. He played a millionaire homicide investigator chauffeured in a Rolls-Royce, and his performance earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1965. In its final season, the series was retitled Amos Burke, Secret Agent. A revival of Burke's Law returned to CBS in 1994 for two seasons, with Barry again in the title role, this time as a widower working alongside his son Peter, played by Peter Barton. Shortly before production began on his next series, Barry appeared in Prescription: Murder, the two-hour television film that served as the precursor to the series Columbo, playing a wealthy psychiatrist as the villain. From 1968 to 1971, NBC aired The Name of the Game, in which Barry played a magazine publisher and rotated as the primary character each week with co-leads Robert Stack and Tony Franciosa. In 1972 Barry starred in the ITV series The Adventurer alongside Barry Morse and Catherine Schell, playing a government agent who posed as an American movie star. That same year he acted in The Second Coming of Suzanne, an avant-garde film directed by his son Michael and starring Sondra Locke and Paul Sand, which Barry co-financed.

Barry returned to Broadway in 1962 in The Perfect Setup and again in 1983 in the Broadway premiere of La Cage aux Folles, where he played Georges. The role earned him both a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, both in 1984. For his contributions to live theatre, Barry received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6555 Hollywood Boulevard. A Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him in 1994, the year he also purchased a home in Palm Springs, California.

Barry's wife Betty died in 2003. He died on December 9, 2009, at Sunrise Senior Living in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 90, and was buried alongside his wife at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.