Matinee Classics - Gene Barry Biography & Filmography

Gene Barry ACTOR

PHOTOS

GENE BARRY BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Gene Barry was born on June 14th, 1919 in New York City, New York with the birth name Eugene Klass, born to parents Martin and Eva Klass. From a young age he showed he had a musical talent playing the violin. After graduating valedictorian from New Utrecht High School he focused on his music, however after he suffered a broken arm from a football injury, his hopes of pursuing a fulltime career in music came to an end.

He began to focus on singing and when he was seventeen years old he earned a scholarship to the Chatham Square School of Music. Along with studying music for two years he found work on vaudeville and performing in nightclubs, choirs and on the radio.

In 1942 he headed for Broadway and performed in a production of, "New Moon" followed by a role in, "Catherine Was Great" (1944) and a number of other stage productions. After gaining some more stage experience, Hollywood finally began to take notice of him and he was signed to a contract with Paramount.

Some film roles he soon added to his resume were, "The Atomic City" (1952), "Those Redheads from Seattle" (1953), "Alaska Seas" (1954), "Red Garters" (1954) and "The War of the Worlds" (1953).

In addition to working on films he appeared in a number of television series as well such as, "NBC Television Opera Theatre" (1950), "Appointment with Adventure" (1955), "Bat Masterson" (1958) and "Burke's Law" (1963), a role he won a Golden Globe Award for.

He did not neglect his stage career and returned to Broadway appearing in more productions such as, "The Perfect Setup" (1962), "La cage aux folles" (1983) and other off-Broadway productions such as, "On a Clear Day you can See Forever", "Fiddler on the Roof" and "No, No, Nanette".

Some of his latest roles were on the television series, "Hollywood Off-Ramp" (2000), the television movie, "These Old Broads" (2001) and the remake of the film, "The War of the Worlds" (2005). For his contribution to live theatre, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He married only once to Betty Barry in 1944 and they had two biological children and one adopted child and remained married until she passed away on January 31st, 2003. Gene later passed away at the age of ninety on December 9th, 2009 in Woodland Hills, California after suffering from congestive heart failure.