The Washington Post is reporting that actor Gene Barry has died at age 90 in his Woodland Hills, California home today.
Gene Barry started as a song-and-dance man, appearing in several long-running 1940s musicals on Broadway. By the 1950s he had switched to film acting where his most popular film was the original War of the Worlds, where Barry played a scientist. He played the federal agent who pursued moonshiner Robert Mitchum in the whiskey noir Thunder Road, and he was a wealthy cad in a plane crash in Back from Eternity.
On TV, Barry starred from 1958-61 as the high-class gambler and good guy Bat Masterson, the western hero who generally eschewed the gun and instead won fights by wielding his cane. From 1963-66 he played millionaire cop Amos Burke on Burke's Law. From 1968-71 he played Glenn Howard, the crusading publisher of People magazine, on The Name of the Game.
Returning to the stage in the 1980s, Barry was Tony-nominated for the original Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles. His baritone is also recognisable for singing the jingle for Lowenbrau beer: the company usEd Barry's rendition of the song in most of its commercials through the early 1990s.
Barry's Theatre Credits Include:
La Cage aux Folles [Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1983
Georges
Spotlight [Broadway]
Closed on the road, 1978
Performer
The Perfect Setup [Broadway]
1962
Performer
Destry Rides Again [US Tour]
National Tour, 1960
Destry
Bless You All [Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1950
Happy as Larry [Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 1950
The Doctor
The Would-Be Gentleman [Broadway]
1946
Catherine Was Great [Broadway]
1944
Lieutenant Bunin
The Merry Widow [Broadway]
Broadway Revival, 1943
Nova Kovich (of the Embassy)
Rosalinda [Broadway]
Broadway Revival, 1942
Falke
The New Moon [Broadway]
1942
Captain Paul Duval
