Bernard Barrow

Bernard Elliott "Bernie" Barrow (December 30, 1927 – August 4, 1993) was an American actor and collegiate drama professor. He was best known as an actor for his roles as Johnny Ryan, an Irish-American patriarch, on ''Ryan's Hope'' (1975 to 1989) and Louie Slavinsky, a kindhearted garbage collector, on ''Loving'' (1989 to 1993). He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 1991 for his role on ''Loving.''

Early life

Barrow was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City and raised in Yorkville, a neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. His father ran a laundry and his mother also worked there. Barrow had two sisters. He received a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University in 1947, a master's degree from Columbia University in 1948, and a doctorate from Yale Drama School in 1957.

Paul Newman was one of Barrow's classmates at Yale and they appeared together in a student production of Pirandello's '' Tonight We Improvise.'' Barrow had the lead role, while Newman played a cadet. Later, when Newman needed an audition scene for the Actors Studio, he used Barrow's big scene from the play.

Career

By the age of twenty-two, Barrow was one of the youngest professors at Brooklyn College. He taught drama and theater there for thirty years, while also directing summer stock and community theater. One of Barrow's students was Dominic Chianese, who later starred on ''The Sopranos''. He also taught Jimmy Smits and director Joel Zwick.

Barrow appeared Off-Broadway as Jonah Goodman in ''The Gentle People'', a play by Irwin Shaw, in 1946. He was only nineteen at the time and the character was in his fifties. In 1947, he was cast in ''The Fall of the House of Usher'', a production that aired on Philco TV. Barrow starred as Mitch in ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' at Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse in 1953. He appeared in ''Stalag 17'' at New York's Studio Arena Theater in the summer of 1954. In 1955, at the age of twenty-eight, he once again played a much older man in a production of ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.''

Barrow appeared in numerous other Off-Broadway plays, including '' Molly's Dream'' and '' Scuba Duba''. In the 1960s, he began to land roles in television and film. He played a reporter in a February 1968 episode of ''The Doctors''.Schemering, Christopher, "Soap Opera Encyclopedia" 1987, Ballantine Books That same year, he played Joanne Woodward's principal in ''Rachel, Rachel'', directed by his former classmate, Paul Newman.

He was cast as Earl Dana on the CBS soap opera '' Where the Heart Is'', playing the role from 1969 to 1970. This was followed by another CBS soap opera, ''The Secret Storm'', where Barrow played Dan Kincaid from 1970 to 1974. He co-starred with Jennifer O'Neill in the film ''Glass Houses'' and with Al Pacino in '' Serpico''. He also appeared in the film ''Claudine''.

On television, Barrow played the Judge who married Rhoda Morgenstern and Joe Gerard on '' Rhoda'', as well as the Judge who married Maude and Walter Findlay on ''Maude''. He also made guest appearances on ''Kojak,'' ''The Waltons,'' and '' On Our Own''. Barrow and his wife, Joan Kaye, guest starred together on an episode of ''The Rookies'', playing a married couple.

Barrow played Ira Paulson on the CBS soap opera ''The Edge of Night'', from 1974 to 1975. He then fought to play the role of Johnny Ryan on the ABC soap opera ''Ryan's Hope'', after being told by the casting director that he was "Too Jewish to play an Irishman." Barrow was initially asked to audition for the role of Seneca Beaulac (which went to John Gabriel). He was eventually cast as Johnny Ryan, playing him from 1975 until the show's final episodes in 1989.

In the 1980s, Barrow appeared in the films '' Jane Austen in Manhattan'', ''The Survivors'', ''Invasion U.S.A.'', and the TV movie ''Senior Trip''. He guest starred on '' Kate & Allie'' in 1988 and ''Law & Order'' in 1990.

After his 13-year run with ''Ryan's Hope'', he was cast as Louie Slavinsky on the ABC soap opera '' Loving'' in December 1989''.'' He won the role without an audition because of his prior history with the network at ''RH''. Barrow won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 1991 for his role on ''Loving'', after receiving nominations for ''RH'' in 1979 and 1988. He was nominated again in the same category in 1992.

In 1992, he starred in a stage production of ''Barefoot in the Park'' at the Valley Forge and Westbury Music Fair. He co-starred with fellow soap opera actors Marilyn Chris, Cady McClain, and Walt Willey.

Personal life

Barrow began to lose his hair in his late twenties and was going bald by his early thirties. He started wearing a toupée while acting in television commercials in the 1970s and continued to wear it for many roles, including on ''Ryan's Hope.''

He met actress Joan Kaye in 1963 while starring in a stage revival of ''Guys and Dolls''. They married on September 15, 1964 and remained together until his death. He had two children from a previous marriage and two stepchildren.

Death

Barrow continued to work on '' Loving'' even after his diagnosis with lung cancer. He died from the disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, at the age of 65.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

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, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
, '' Loving''
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References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrow, Bernard
1927 births
1993 deaths
Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state)
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male soap opera actors
Daytime Emmy Award winners
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series winners
Male actors from New York City
Brooklyn College faculty

Jewish actors
American male stage actors