Barbara Stuart (born Barbara Ann McNeese; January 3, 1930 – May 15, 2011) was an American actress.
Barbara Stuart starred as Violet Ryder in the
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
episode “The Guilty Clients” in 1961.
Early years
Born in
Paris, Illinois
Paris is a city in Edgar County, Illinois, south of Chicago and west of Indianapolis. The population was 8,291 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat and largest city of Edgar County.
History
Paris was established in 1826 on land donated ...
, Stuart was raised in
Hume, Illinois }
Hume is a village in Shiloh and Young America townships, Edgar County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 325.
History
The future site of Hume was most likely part of the Illinois Confederation in the ...
. Following her high school graduation, she studied acting at the Schuster-Martin School of Drama in Cincinnati before moving to New York City, where she studied under
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee, who called her "a ...
and
Stella Adler
Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher. ''
Career
On stage, Stuart performed in the national touring company of ''
Lunatics and Lovers
''Lunatics and Lovers'' ( it, Culastrisce nobile veneziano) is a 1976 Italian comedy film directed by Flavio Mogherini.
Cast
* Marcello Mastroianni as Marquis Luca Maria
* Lino Toffolo as Agostino
* Claudia Mori as Luca Maria's wife
* Adriano ...
''. In the early 1960s, she was a showgirl in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...
Bachelor Party
A bachelor party (in the United States and sometimes in Canada), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia), is a party held/arranged by th ...
'' (1984), and '' Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills'' (1997).
Stuart's roles in TV programs include those shown in the table below:
In the early 1990s, Stuart performed in dinner theaters.
Personal life and death
Stuart married actor
Dick Gautier
Richard Gautier (October 30, 1931 – January 13, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and caricaturist. He was known for his television roles as Hymie the Robot in the television series '' Get Smart'', and Robin Hood in the TV comedy ...
in 1967. Their honeymoon was canceled by her hospitalization for a blood clot in her leg. She was in the hospital for eight months as the clot moved to her lung and she developed pneumonia.
On May 15, 2011, she died at a nursing home in St. George, Utah, aged 81.