Don "Red" Barry: Life and Career of the B-Western Actor (1910–1980)

Don “Red” Barry, B-Western actor, was born Milton Poimboeuf in Houston on January 11, 1910. His birth year is often mistakenly listed as 1911 or 1912, which would be impossible, because his nineteen-year-old mother, Emma Elizabeth (Murray) Poimboeuf, died of tuberculosis in March 1910. His father, Louis Leonce Poimboeuf, was a Louisiana-born descendant of French and Spanish heritage. He was raised in part by his paternal grandmother, Regina (Acosta) Poimboeuf, and used the name Donald Michael Barry de Acosta throughout his adulthood.

Barry attended Allen Academy (then a military school) in Bryan, Jefferson Davis High School in Houston, and the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy in El Paso (now the University of Texas at El Paso). In both high school and college he was a star football player. Barry was selected to play for the Texas All-Stars, which were invited to a 1930 charity meet at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Among the spectators that day was John Wayne, only a few years removed from his days as an offensive tackle for the University of Southern California. Both Barry and Wayne later became cowboy stars at Republic Studios, renowned for B-Westerns. After school he went to Los Angeles and worked as an assistant to Lou Brock, a producer at RKO Radio Pictures, and in advertising. By 1933, however, Barry had pivoted to acting. His first appearance on film was in Family Troubles, a 1933 short subject directed by George Stevens, who went on to direct the iconic Texas movie Giant (1956).

Early Acting Career

After a string of bit parts in movies, Barry was cast in a travelling stage production of Tobacco Road, based on Erskine Caldwell’s controversial novel. The Broadway production of the play ran from 1933 to 1941, and for a time had the lengthiest run of any drama in Broadway history. Barry appeared in the role of Dude Lester, which proved to be a good showcase for his abilities. Returning to Hollywood, he received his first credited feature film role in Night Waitress (1936). He continued his film career with an assortment of bit parts, including a minor reoccurring role in three Dr. Kildare movies and an appearance in Only Angels Have Wings, a 1939 film directed by Howard Hawks, which was enshrined in the National Film Registry in 2017.

Barry received his first starring role for Calling All Marines (1939) for Republic Pictures. He played the titular role in Republic’s Wyoming Outlaw, a 1939 Western starring John Wayne. The film was part of the popular Three Mesquiteers series (1936–43), inspired by a series of Western novels by William Colt MacDonald. Following Wyoming Outlaw, Barry appeared in two other 1939 Republic Westerns, both of which starred Roy Rogers: Saga of Death Valley and Days of Jesse James (in which he played the title role).

B-Western Star at Republic Pictures

As Barry had proved to be a good fit with Republic, he was signed to a contract on February 11, 1940. He starred in Ghost Valley Raiders (1940) and was next assigned to play the title role in Adventures of Red Ryder (1940), a twelve-episode Western serial based on a comic strip that began running in newspapers in 1938. The popular strip also spawned a merchandising bonanza, which included the Daisy Manufacturing Company’s well-known Red Ryder BB Gun. Standing just five-and-a-half feet tall, Barry reportedly objected to the casting—Red Ryder was drawn as lean and lanky in the comics—yet Republic boss Herbert Yates insisted that Barry was the man for the job.

The role proved to be a plum for Barry, and he was credited as Don “Red” Barry for the rest of his Republic Western run. During the Cold War, however, he was rarely credited by the “Red” nickname, as it had become politically touchy. In some quarters, the nickname Red was considered a reflection of his scrappy personality. Vivian Coe (aka Vivian Austin), who co-starred in his Red Ryder serial, later commented, “He had such a temper! He would walk off the set—often! Stopping production just because he disagreed with [director] Bill Witney, or somebody, about some minor thing…[H]e wasn’t a very nice fellow when we worked together.”

Though Barry’s co-workers were not particularly fond of him, he was popular with movie audiences. From 1940 to 1944 he starred in twenty-nine Westerns for Republic, most of which were directed by veteran George Sherman. In 1942 he made his first appearance on the list of the Top Ten Money-Making Western Stars in the annual Motion Picture Herald film exhibitors’ poll. Ranked ninth, he shared the list with such performers as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Smiley Burnette, Charles Starrett, Johnny Mack Brown, Bill Elliott, and Tim Holt. Barry remained on the list through 1945, although his run as a Western lead for Republic came to an end with Outlaws of Santa Fe in 1944.

During this period Republic occasionally cast Barry in non-Western films, including the World War II movie Remember Pearl Harbor (1942), and crime films such as The Traitor Within (1942) and The West Side Kid (1943). Republic also loaned Barry out to Twentieth Century Fox for the World War II film The Purple Heart (1944). Barry, who had begun to grow tired of B-Westerns, remained with Republic and appeared in assortment of genres.

Later Film and Television Career

Beginning in 1949, Barry starred in several films (mostly Westerns) for Lippert Productions. At the same time, he also got involved behind the camera. He received his first story credit for Red Light (1949), a crime thriller starring George Raft, and got two additional story credits for Train to Tombstone (1950) and Convict Stage (1965), in which he also appeared. He also served as a producer on three 1949 Lippert films in which he also appeared: Square Dance Jubilee, Tough Assignment, and Red Desert. He co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred (as Jesse James) in Jesse James’ Women (1954).

Barry’s background made him a natural when it came to guest roles on television Westerns, such as Cheyenne (1955–63), Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–63), Sugarfoot (1957–61), Colt .45 (1957–60), Bat Masterson (1958–61), Maverick (1957–62), Lawman (1958–62), Rawhide (1959–65), Bronco (1958–62), Laramie (1959–63), Bonanza (1959–73), The Virginian (1962–71), Gunsmoke (1955–75), and Hec Ramsey (1972–74). He also appeared in a number of police and private eye shows, such as Dragnet (1951–59), M Squad (1957–60), Bourbon Street Beat (1959–60), Peter Gunn (1958–61), 77 Sunset Strip (1958–64), Checkmate (1960–62), Hawaiian Eye (1959–63), Mannix (1967–75), Adam-12 (1968–75), and Police Woman (1974–78). Barry had a recurring role (twenty-eight episodes) of Surfside 6 (1960–62) and was remembered by television audiences for playing a bigot named Jud Larrabee on several episodes of Little House on the Prairie (1974–83) in the late 1970s. He continued to appear in feature films as well as television movies.

Personal Life and Death

Despite Barry’s B-movie background, at various times he was rumored to be romantically linked with various A-list actresses, including Lana Turner, Ann Sheridan, Joan Crawford, Susan Hayward, Linda Darnell, Jane Greer, and Betty Grable. Barry was wed to actress Peggy Stewart from 1940 to 1944, and together they had one son, Michael. Another son, Shawn, resulted from his marriage to Ona-Dell Ward. He married Barbara Patin about 1963, and they had two daughters, Deborah and Kristine.

At the time of his death, Barry was estranged from his third wife. On July 17, 1980, Los Angeles police were called to his residence in North Hollywood to mediate a domestic dispute between the two. Afterwards, as police officers were leaving, Barry came out of his house with a .38 caliber pistol and shot himself in the head. He was declared dead at Riverside Hospital (now known as North Hollywood Medical Center) in Los Angeles. He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills.