Reginald Barlow

Reginald Harry Barlow was born on June 17, 1866, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and died on July 6, 1943. He worked as a stage and screen character actor, author, and film director across a career spanning several decades.

Barlow's introduction to performing came early. The son of minstrel performer Milt G. Barlow (1843–1904), he made his stage debut at twelve years old in his father's troupe, Barlow, Wilson, Primrose, and West. His stage career eventually brought him to Broadway, where he appeared in productions between 1904 and 1931. His Broadway credits include A Madcap Princess, Antony and Cleopatra, the musical The Pied Piper, the play The Pigeon, and the play The Blue Bird. Earlier in his stage career he also appeared in The Silver King, Monte Cristo, The Sign of the Cross, Old Lady 31, and The Little Princess.

In 1908, Barlow considered leaving the stage for the church, telling an interviewer at the time that his ancestors had been soldiers, actors, and ministers, and that he was a direct descendant of Bishop Barlow of the reign of Henry VIII.

Barlow's military service ran parallel to his performing career. He served in the Spanish–American War and on October 22, 1899, enlisted in the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War, holding the rank of Lance Corporal. During World War I he served in the United States Army, commanding the 302nd Infantry as a Major before receiving command of the 349th as a Lieutenant-Colonel. He attained the rank of full colonel in 1923. Following the war, he was named post-commander of American Legion Post 742, founded in December 1919 by members of The Lambs and Players clubs, all of whom were veterans. Barlow had been elected to The Lambs in 1916.

He also worked as a director, leading the Wright Huntington Players and narrating for the Eveready Hour, and directed at least one film, The Toy Maker of Leyden (1915), catalogued under the alternate title The Magic Toy Maker in the American Film Institute records for the period.

Barlow's screen work began in the silent era with appearances including The Cinema Murder (1919), Love's Flame, in which he played the father-in-law M. De Ronsard, and Clothes Make the Pirate (1925), in which he played Captain Montague. After the transition to sound film, he became a busy presence in Hollywood productions during the 1930s, frequently cast as men of authority. His sound-era roles included a college professor in Horse Feathers (1932) alongside the Marx Brothers, a chaplain in Ann Vickers (1933), the sheriff in Tower of London (1939), and Professor Warwick in The Mad Monster (1942), in which his character ostracizes the mad scientist played by George Zucco. He was also a confirmed member of Hollywood Post 43 of the American Legion.

Barlow married at least six times. He married Florence Mary Alice Hamilton on July 1, 1901, in Houghton, Michigan; they separated on January 1, 1902, and Florence filed for divorce in 1903. He married Clare Danforth on April 15, 1902, in Charleston, Missouri, under the name Reginald Livingston; they had a daughter, Margaret June Barlow, born February 28, 1903, in Chicago. Clare filed for divorce on February 9, 1904. On August 6, 1903, in Los Angeles, he married Milwaukee heiress Bertha Merkel, also known as actress Selma Rose; the marriage prompted widespread newspaper coverage of bigamy accusations, and the couple had one daughter, June Barlow, born and died in 1904. A marriage record exists for a Martha M. Merkel on June 22, 1927, in Manhattan. He married Carol Brown of Pasadena, California, on April 11, 1934, in Tijuana, Mexico, according to the Los Angeles Times of April 19, 1934. He subsequently married Carol Katherine Uselding on July 3, 1935, in Los Angeles.