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GENE BARRY PASSES
Gene Barry, who played the well-dressed man of action in the television series "Bat Masterson," "Burke's Law" and "The Name of the Game," has died at age 90 of unknown causes, his son said Thursday.
Fredric James Barry said the actor died Wednesday at a rest home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Woodland Hills.
Gene Barry essentially played the same character in all three series, which spanned the 1950s to the 1970s. Always fashionably dressed, the tall, handsome actor with the commanding voice dominated his scenes as he bested the bad guys in each show.
In the first of the three, the Western "Bat Masterson," he was a frontier dandy who rarely resorted to gunplay, choosing instead to beat his rivals senseless with a gold-handled cane.
Before he landed the role in 1958, Barry's movie career appeared to be on the rise, and he was at first reluctant to play Bat Masterson. He had starred in the science-fiction classic "War of the Worlds" in 1953 and opposite Clark Gable in "Soldier of Fortune" in 1955.
He said he was won over to TV when he learned that lawman Masterson had worn a derby and carried a gold-handled cane in real life.
Barry is survived by his three children, Michael, Fredric and Elizabeth, as well as three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Gene Barry essentially played the same character in all three series, which spanned the 1950s to the 1970s. Always fashionably dressed, the tall, handsome actor with the commanding voice dominated his scenes as he bested the bad guys in each show.
In the first of the three, the Western "Bat Masterson," he was a frontier dandy who rarely resorted to gunplay, choosing instead to beat his rivals senseless with a gold-handled cane.
Before he landed the role in 1958, Barry's movie career appeared to be on the rise, and he was at first reluctant to play Bat Masterson. He had starred in the science-fiction classic "War of the Worlds" in 1953 and opposite Clark Gable in "Soldier of Fortune" in 1955.
He said he was won over to TV when he learned that lawman Masterson had worn a derby and carried a gold-handled cane in real life.
Barry is survived by his three children, Michael, Fredric and Elizabeth, as well as three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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