Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  Eric Barker

  Born February 20, 1912

  Died June 1, 1990

  Supporting comedian. Eric Leslie Barker was born in Thornton Heath, Surrey, and made his theatre début in rep in 1930. He appeared in films, television and radio as well as the theatre. His radio series Just Fancy was a huge hit. He appeared in more than 30 movies including: Blue Murder At St Trinian’s (1958) as Culpepper-Brown, Carry On Sergeant (1958) as Captain Potts, Carry On Constable (1959) as Inspector Mills, Dentist In The Chair (1960), Pure Hell Of St Trinian’s (1958) as Culpepper-Brown, a doctor in On The Beat (1962), Carry On Spying (1964) as The Chief, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (1965) as a French postman, There’s A Girl In My Soup (1970) and Carry On Emmannuelle (1978) as an ancient general. Carry On Cruising (1962) was based on an Eric Barker story. Barker won a BAFTA Best Newcomer Award (aged 45!) for Brothers In Law (1957) in which he played Alec Blair. He also wrote three novels, a collection of short stories and his autobiography. He was married to the actor Pearl Hackney (b. Burton-on-Trent, October 28, 1916) by whom he had a daughter.

  CAUSE: He died aged 78 in Faversham, Kent.

  Lex Barker

  Born May 8, 1919

  Died May 11, 1973

  Jekyll & Hyde? Born in Rye, New York, 6́ 4˝ Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr, the son of a socially prominent family, went to Princeton University but left after two years to become an actor. His first film was Doll Face (1945) and he went on to appear as a builder in Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and five Tarzan films (he was the tenth actor to play the lord of the jungle, replacing Johnny Weissmuller, but quit because Tarzan never had much to say) beginning with Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949), Tarzan And The Slave Girl (1950), Tarzan’s Peril (1951), Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952) and finishing with Tarzan And The She-Devil (1953). In keeping with the Lord of the Jungle’s familiar appearance, Barker shaved his body hair throughout his life. After 1958 linguist Barker worked mostly in Italy and Germany appearing in La Dolce Vita (1960). In 1966 he won Germany’s Bambi Award for Best Foreign Actor. By all accounts he was not an especially nice man. “Twice I’ve gotten into loud quarrels with alleged fans who said I owed them an autograph. Never again. You can’t reason with such dumbbells … If, in return for my salary, I go to work, do my job and then also perform mandated publicity, how am I left owing anybody anything? By what logic?” He was married five times. His first wife was socialite Constance Thurlow; they married on January 27, 1942, in Manhattan. They had a son, Alexander III ‘Zan’ (b. 1948) and a daughter Lynn (b. 1944), but were divorced in Los Angeles on November 16, 1950, on the grounds of Barker’s alleged cruelty towards her. Wife number two, as of April 1951, was actress Arlene Dahl. They married at the Central Presbyterian Church in New York. Less than two years later, on October 15, 1952, the couple was divorced. Barker had once referred to Dahl as “a hick from Minnesota”. The divorce was finalised on November 13, 1953. Meanwhile, two months earlier on September 8, 1953, Barker had married (as her fourth husband) Lana Turner in Turin’s sixteenth-century city hall. On October 6, 1956, she miscarried their baby at St John’s Hospital. Eight months later, on June 28, 1957, Turner filed for divorce, citing Barker’s “cruel and inhuman conduct”. Barker blamed Turner’s daughter, Cheryl, for the breakdown of the marriage: “The girl told a story to her mother. I denied it was true. But Lana always had one great fault – to believe her daughter first, although knowing she was full of complexes and accustomed to lie.” Cheryl was not a bad girl, said Barker “but certainly very strange.” Lana Turner’s biographers, writing in 1972 a year before Barker’s death, never revealed what story Cheryl had told her mother. It is this. For three years Barker systematically raped and abused Cheryl. He began by exposing himself and masturbating in front of her before progressing to full sex. The abuse began when Cheryl was just ten years old. She also began menstruating at that age; a doctor examined the girl and confirmed she had been damaged internally. When Turner heard about Barker’s behaviour she held a gun on him and gave him 20 minutes to pack and get out of the house. On March 14, 1959, in Lucerne, he married for the fourth time. Wife number four was Swiss drama student Irene Labhart. Their son, Christopher, was born in 1960. On October 23, 1962, Labhart died of a heart attack in Rome, aged 32. In Geneva on March 6, 1965, Barker took his fifth wife. She was Miss Spain of 1961, Maria del Carmen Cervera, and they were together until his death. Wife number three, Lana Turner commented, “When I call my ex-husband anal, people think I’m being intellectual or Freudian. But merely I’m using a polite word for what he really is, deep down …”

  CAUSE: He died of a heart attack on Lexington Avenue near 61st Street in New York three days after his 54th birthday. When she was told, Lana Turner remarked: “What took him so long?”

  Binnie Barnes

  (GITELLE ENOYCE GERTRUDE MAUDE BARNES)

  Born March 25, 1903

  Died July 27, 1998

  The one with the withering look. Born in Finsbury Park, north London, the daughter of a policeman, 5́ 5˝ Barnes was one of 17 children. Her first paid appointment was as a milkmaid, then a nurse, a draper’s shop assistant and finally a dance hostess before she saw and was captivated by Tex McLeod’s rope spinning act. The two teamed up and toured South America for a year before Barnes branched out on her own as ‘Texas Binnie’ Barnes. She amazed audiences by her dexterity with a rope and tales of the Wild West – a place she had never visited. In 1929 she began her legitimate stage career but it was the role of Fanny in Noël Coward’s Cavalcade that assured her of stardom. She went to New York aboard the Queen Mary to make the film version but, after the briefest of stays in the Big Apple, caught the same ship home. She was cast as Catherine Howard (the one who was beheaded for treason) opposite Charles Laughton’s monarch in The Private Lives Of Henry VIII (1933). She starred opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Private Life Of Don Juan (1934) as the maid Rosita, and made 26 two-reel comedies with Lupino Lane before returning to America to fulfil her contractual obligations. Over the next two decades she appeared in The Lady Is Willing (1934) as Helene Dupont, Diamond Jim (1935) as Lillian Russell, Sutter’s Gold (1936) as Countess Elizabeth Bartoffski, The Last Of The Mohicans (1938) as Alice Munro, The Adventures Of Marco Polo (1938) as Nazama, Daytime Wife (1939) as Blanche, Man About Town (1939) as Lady Arlington, The Three Musketeers (1939) as Milady De Winter, I Married An Angel (1942) as Peggy, The Hour Before The Dawn (1944) as May Heatherton and The Decameron Nights (1953) as Countess of Florence/Nerina/ the old witch. A devout Roman Catholic, in 1931 Barnes married art dealer Samuel Joseph; they were to divorce five years later. In 1940 she married sports commentator Mike Frankovitch and they adopted twin sons and a daughter. In 1941 she was in the news after threatening to sue Columbia Pictures over a picture of her in scanty black underwear in This Thing Called Love. Barnes claimed she had been promised she would be seen in silhouette only. Unfortunately, her complaint led to even more unwanted publicity when the picture was printed in the press. She was widowed in 1992.

  CAUSE: Natural causes. She died at her Beverly Hills home aged 95.

  Patrick Barr

  Born February 13, 1908

  Died August 29, 1985

  Stalwart. Born in Akola, India the son of a judge, Patrick Barr was educated at Radley and Trinity College, Oxford. An engineer, he made his stage début in rep in 1932 and in the West End in 1936. His career encompassed all three media. He was a regular on television in Britain in the Fifties. His films included: Robin Hood (1951) as King Richard I, Singlehanded (1953), St Joan (1957) as Captain La Hire, The Longest Day (1962) as Group Captain J.N. Stagg, Billy Liar (1963) as Inspector MacDonald, House Of Whipcord (1974) as Justice Bailey and Octopussy (1983) as the British ambassador. He was married with a daughter.

  CAUSE: He died in London, aged 74.

  Jean-Louis Barrault

  Born September 8, 1910

  Died January 22, 1994

  Stage director. Born in Vésinet, France, Barra
ult made his stage début in Volpone in 1931. It was in the theatre that he achieved his greatest success although he made a number of notable films including Drôle De Drame (1937), Les Enfants Du Paradis (1945) and The Longest Day (1962) as Father Louis Roulland. He was married to the actor Madeleine Renaud (b. Paris, France, February 21, 1900, d. Paris, France, September 23, 1994) from 1940 until his death. The actor Marie-Christine Barrault was his niece.

  CAUSE: Barrault died aged 83 in Paris, France, of a heart attack.

  Wendy Barrie

  (MARGUERITE WENDY JENKINS)

  Born April 18, 1912

  Died February 2, 1978

  Gangster’s moll. Wendy Barrie was born in Hong Kong, the daughter of an English barrister, who practised in China. Educated in England and Switzerland she was named after the heroine in Peter Pan so she took author J.M. Barrie’s surname when she began her professional career. She worked in a beauty parlour before becoming a secretary and finally, at 19, an actor. She made her film début in Where Is The Lady? (1932) as Lucie Kleiiner and went on to appear in nine more films – Threads (1932) as Olive Wynn, Collision (1932) as Joyce, The Callbox Mystery as Iris Banner, The Barton Mystery (1932) as Phyllis Grey, It’s A Boy (1933) as Mary Bogle, The House Of Trent (1933) as Angela, Cash (1933) as Lilian Gilbert, The Acting Business as Joyce and Wedding Rehearsal (1933) as Lady Mary Rose – before Sir Alexander Korda signed her to play Jane Seymour in The Private Life Of Henry VIII (1933), starring Charles Laughton in the title role for which he won an Oscar. Her performance led to a contract in Hollywood for Paramount in 1935 (until 1943). She was Beryl Stapleton in the first Sherlock Holmes-Dr Watson outing for Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1939). She appeared in many films (usually B pictures) and was three times – each with different character names – George Sanders’ leading lady in The Saint series: The Saint Strikes Back (1939) as Val Travers, The Saint Takes Over (1940) as Ruth Summers and The Saint In Palm Springs (1941) as Elna Johnson. She also appeared with Sanders in the first two of the Falcon series – The Gay Falcon (1941) and A Date With The Falcon (1941) but this time played the same character – Helen Reed. Wendy Barrie fell in love in the Forties but as women are wont to do, she fell in love with the wrong man. Her relationship put paid to her Hollywood career. Benjamin Siegel – no one with any sense called him ‘Bugsy’ to his face – was not the type of boyfriend a girl could take home to dinner with her parents. Seven years her senior, Siegel (born on February 28, 1905 – some sources say 1906 – in Brooklyn, the second of five children) was a Prohibition bootlegger, a rapist, a kidnapper, a white slaver, an illegal bookmaker, a hijacker, an extortionist, a drugs trafficker and a murderer (12 confessed killings) – apart from that, an upstanding citizen. Despite Warren Beatty’s sanitised filmic portrayal, Siegel was a cold-hearted killer and definitely not a man to be crossed. He first came to the attention of the police on January 3, 1926, a month short of his 21st birthday, when he was arrested for rape. The woman dropped the charge and Siegel walked free. He was later to say, “The wench called me up … and told me I was a little bit brutal with her – but that when she thought about it later, she admitted I had given her the best lay of her life.” In 1927 he married Estelle and in 1930 their first daughter, Millicent, was born, followed two years later by Barbara. A wife and young family did not prevent Siegel playing the field and he became friendly with a number of women including prostitutes, socialites like Countess Dorothy Dendice Taylor diFrasso, good-time girls like Virginia Hill and actors like Ketti Gallion, Wendy Barrie and Marie ‘The Body’ McDonald. The latter two women disliked each other and whenever McDonald saw Barrie she flew into a temper. Once at the Flamingo hotel and casino she punched her in the face, nearly dislocating her jaw. Not long after the Flamingo opened in 1947 Siegel installed Barrie, McDonald, Hill and diFrasso in separate suites. He was shot to death on June 20, 1947, while sitting in Virginia Hill’s Beverly Hills mansion at 810 North Linden Drive. 5́ 5˝ Wendy fled to New York and a career on Broadway. Her other films were: Without You (1934) as Molly Bannister, There Goes Susie (1934) as Madeleine Sarteaux, Murder At The Inn (1934) as Angela, The Man I Want as Marion Round, Give Her A Ring (1934) as Karen Svenson, Freedom Of The Seas (1934) as Phyllis Harcourt, It’s A Small World (1935) as Jane Dale, College Scandal (1935) as Julie Fresnel, The Big Broadcast Of 1936 (1935) as Sue, A Feather In Her Hat (1935) as Pauline Anders, Millions In The Air as Marion Keller, What Price Vengeance? (1936) as Polly Moore, Love On A Bet (1936) as Paula Gilbert, Speed (1936) as Jane Mitchell, Ticket To Paradise (1936) as Jane, Under Your Spell (1936) as Cynthia Drexel, Breezing Home (1937) as Floria, Wings Over Honolulu (1937) as Lauralee Curtis, Dead End (1937) as Kay Burton, A Girl With Ideas (1937) as Mary Morton, Prescription For Romance as Valerie Wilson, Pacific Liner as Nurse Ann Grayson, I Am The Law (1938) as Frankie Ballou, Newsboys’ Home (1938) as Gwen Dutton, Five Came Back (1939) as Alice Melbourne, The Witness Vanishes as Joan Marplay, Day-Time Wife as Kitty Frazier, Women In War as Pamela Starr, Cross-Country Romance (1940) as Diane North, Who Killed Aunt Maggie? (1940) as Sally Ambler, Men Against The Sky (1940) as Kay Mercedes, Repent At Leisure (1941) as Emily Bladwin, Public Enemies (1941) as Bonnie Parker, Eyes Of The Underworld (1943) as Betty Standing, Forever And A Day (1943) as Edith Trimble-Pomfret, Follies Girl (1943) as Anne Merriday and Submarine Alert (1943) as Ann Patterson. In her last film, It Should Happen To You (1954), she played herself as a chat show host.

  CAUSE: Wendy Barrie died in Englewood, New Jersey, aged 65, after a long illness.

  Don Barry

  (DONALD BARRY DEACOSTA)

  Born January 11, 1912

  Died July 17, 1980

  Red. Born in Houston, Texas, Barry was trained at the Texas School of Mines and began appearing in repertory productions. He made his film début as a student in Cecil B. De Mille’s This Day And Age (1933). He took a break from the screen until 1936 when he reappeared in Night Waitress (1936) as Mario Rigo and then was in When’s Your Birthday? (1937) as Marty. His films included: The Woman I Love (1937) as Michel, The Last Gangster (1937) as Billy Ernst, Sinners In Paradise (1938) as Jessup and the Dr Kildare series – Young Dr Kildare as Dr Collins, Calling Dr Kildare as Intern Collins and The Secret Of Dr Kildare (1939) as Collins. In 1939 he was signed to Republic Pictures and began to appear in the westerns that would make his name. In he appeared in the Red Ryder serial that gave him his nickname ‘Red’. Over the course of five years he appeared in 29 Westerns: One Man’s Law (1940) as Jack Summers, The Tulsa Kid (1940) as Tom Benton, Frontier Vengeance (1940) as Jim Sanders, Texas Terrors (1940) as Bob Millbourne, Ghost Valley Raiders (1940) as Tim Brandon, Wyoming Wildcat (1941) as Bill Gannon, The Phantom Cowboy (1941) as Jim Lawrence, Two Gun Sheriff (1941) as The Sundown Kid, Desert Bandit as Bob Crandall, Kansas Cyclone (1941) as Jim Randall, The Apache Kid (1941) as Pete Dawson, Death Valley Outlaws (1941) as Johnny Edwards, A Missouri Outlaw (1941) as Cliff Dixon, Arizona Terrors (1942) as Jim Bradley, Stagecoach Express (1942) as Dave Gregory, Jesse James, Jr (1942) as Johnny Barrett, The Cyclone Kid as Johnny Dawson/Cyclone Kid, The Sombrero Kid (1942) as Jerry Holden, Outlaws Of Pine Ridge (1942) as Chips Barrett, The Sundown Kid as Red Tracy, Dead Man’s Gulch (1943) as Tennessee Colby, Carson City Cyclone (1943) as Gilbert Phalen, Days Of Old Cheyenne (1943) as Clint Ross, Fugitive From Sonora as Dave Winters/Keeno Phillips, Black Hills Express (1943) as Lon Walker, The Man From The Rio Grande (1943) as Lee Grant, Canyon City (1943) as Terry Reynolds, California Joe (1943) as Lieutenant Joe Weldon and Outlaws Of Santa Fe as Bob Conroy/Bob Hackett. Barry began to feel that his talents were being wasted on westerns and he made the move to “more demanding roles” but still he returned to his stetson because that was what the fans wanted. He was in The Dalton Gang (1949) as Larry West, Red Desert (1949) as the Pecos Kid, I Shot Billy The Kid (1950) as Billy The Kid, Gunfire (1950) as Frank James and Bat Fenton, Train To Tombstone (1950) as Len Howard and Border Rangers (1950) as Bob Standish. In 1951 he moved to the small
screen but returned with the self-financed Jesse James’s Women (1954) as Jesse James. He was now only cast in bit parts, something that dented his ego. He appeared in Gun Duel In Durango as Larry, Frankenstein – 1970 as Douglas Row, Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958) as Councilman Fitzgerald, Ocean’s Eleven (1960) as McCoy, Walk On The Wild Side (1962) as Dockery, The Carpetbaggers (1964), Apache Uprising (1966) as Henry Belden, Bandolero! (1968) as Jack Hawkins, Shalako (1968) as Buffalo and Rio Lobo (1970) as Feeny. In 1970 he announced that he wanted to make another western and asked fans to send in loans to finance the project. It never came to fruition. Married three times including once to the actor Peggy Stewart (b. West Palm Beach, Florida, June 5, 1923) from 1940 until 1944, the short Barry was something of a ladies’ man. He had affairs with many Hollywood beauties including Linda Darnell, Joan Crawford and Ann Sheridan. On November 4, 1955 he created headlines when his girlfriend, Jill Jarmyn, caught him in flagrante with his co-star Susan Hayward. The two women began a fist fight.

  CAUSE: By the summer of 1980 Barry was separated from his wife but was trying to patch things up. On July 17 police were called to his North Hollywood home during a domestic. After calming things down the policemen returned to their patrol car only for Barry to run after them wielding a .38 calibre revolver. In a split second he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger. He was pronounced dead at 10pm at Riverside Hospital.