Actor Gene Barry died 9 December 2009. Born Eugene Klass on 14 June 1919 in New York City, he’ll be remembered for playing Bat Masterson on the television series by that name, which ran from 1958 to 1961. According to Bob Thomas of the Associated Press, Barry “essentially played the same character in” Burke’s Law (1963-66) and The Name of the Game (1968-71). “Always fashionably dressed, the tall, handsome actor with the commanding voice dominated his scenes as he bested the bad guys in each show. In Bat Masterson, he was a frontier dandy who rarely resorted to gunplay, choosing instead to beat his rivals senseless with a gold-handled cane.” He won a Golden Globe for his role in Burke’s Law in 1965.
Thomas says that “Before he landed the role [of Bat Masterson], Barry’s movie career appeared to be on the rise… He had starred in the science fiction classic War of the Worlds in 1953 [he played Dr. Clayton Forrester] and opposite Clark Gable in Soldier of Fortune in 1955.” His last film role was in the Tom Cruise 2005 remake War of the Worlds; Barry played the grandfather.
Barry’s other genre roles include: Hollywood Off-Ramp (2000), My Secret Identity (1988), The Twilight Zone (1987), The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite (1981), three episodes of Fantasy Island (1978 and 1981), The Devil and Miss Sarah (1971), The 27th Day (1957), and two episodes of Science Fiction Theatre (1955).
As a child, he had a gift for the violin, but after he broke his arm playing football in high school, stopped thinking of a career as a violinist, and instead concentrated on his singing. After graduating from high school (he was the valedictorian at New Utrecht High School), he won a singing scholarship from David Sarnoff (head of RCA at the time) to the Chatham Square School of Music, and studied there for two years. He debuted on Broadway in 1942 (in New Moon), and then appeared in Mae West’s Catherine Was Great (1944), where he met his future bride, Betty (she was singing under the name Julie Carson). He first appeared on television in 1950’s The Clock; his first film appearance was in The Atomic City (1952). He returned to the stage in the 1970s, and created the role of Georges, the gay night club owner in La Cage aux Folles, for which he was nominated for a Tony in 1984.
Barry’s wife died in 2003, after 58 years of marriage. He is survived by two sons, one daughter, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.