Gene Barry was a suave leading man in films and television from the 1950s. He was best known for his starring role as Dr. Clayton Forrester in George Pal’s 1953 film adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Several years later he again faced alien invaders in the underrated sci-fi film The 27th Day (1956).
He was born Eugene Klass in New York City on June 14, 1919. He began his career as a singer in nightclubs and variety shows, and was appearing on the Broadway stage in the early 1940s. He made his film debut in the 1952 sci-fi/spy thriller The Atomic City.
Barry was also a familiar face on television from the early 1950s. He starred as the dapper western lawman William Barclay `Bat’ Masterson in the Bat Masterson series from 1958 to 1961. Barry also starred as Captain Amos Burke, the suave Los Angeles Chief of Detectives who would arrive at crime scenes in a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce, in the Burke’s Law from 1963 to 1965. He continued with the role of Burke when the series was repackaged as spy series in the wake of the popularity of James Bond, and became Amos Burke, Secret Agent from 1965 to 1966. He reprised his role as Amos Burke in the short-lived Burke’s Law revival in 1994 and 1995.
Barry was the first murderer brought to bay by Peter Falk’s Columbo in the 1968 tele-film Columbo: Prescription Murder. He also starred as jet-setting publisher Glen Howard in The Name of the Game, alternating exploits with Robert Stack and Tony Franciosa from 1968 to 1971. A later episode of the series, LA 2017, but a sci-fi spin on the usual adventures, and was written by author Philip Wylie. Barry was also Gene Bradley in action series The Adventurer from 1972 to 1973.
His numerous television roles also included episodes of Suspense, Science Fiction Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Fantasy Island, the 1987 Twilight Zone, and My Secret Identity. He also starred in the tele-films The Devil and Miss Sarah (1971), The Girl, the Gold Watch and Dynamite (1981), and Turn Back the Clock (1989). He was featured as Rep. Leo O’Brien in a fictionalized account of the Jonestown Massacre in 1980′s Guyana: Cult of the Damned.
He reunited with his 1953 leading lady Ann Robinson to play grandparents in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 remake of The War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise.
Barry died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, on December 10, 2009, at the age of 90.
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