Barry Coe
Encyclopedia
Barry S. Coe is an American
actor
who appeared in film
and on television
from 1956-1978. Many of his motion pictures parts were minor, but he co-starred in one series, Follow the Sun
, which aired on ABC
during the 1961-1962 season, and also played the recognizable "Mr. Goodwrench" on TV commercials in the 70s and 80s.
to an American publicist and a Scottish immigrant mother. His father was publicist at Warner Brothers in the 1920s and 1930s and represented a list of stars that included Errol Flynn
, John Barrymore
, and Eddie Albert
. His father died from a car crash on Laurel Canyon
when Barry was six years old, and his mother married an engineer after his death. Coe attended the University of Southern California
and was discovered by a talent scout during a trip with his fraternity to Palm Springs in the mid-1950s. Thereafter he was signed under contract for 20th Century Fox as an actor.
Coe's first film appearance was as Mr. Davis in Elvis Presley
's Love Me Tender
in 1956. While at the 20Th Century Fox studios he went on a date with actress Barbara Eden
. The next year he played the lustful Rodney Harrington
in the original Peyton Place
film, based on the Grace Metalious novel
. In 1958, he appeared in The Bravados
, and in 1959, he was cast in But Not for Me
.
In 1960, Coe secured a Golden Globe award for the Most Promising Newcomer - Male, along with James Shigeta
, Troy Donahue
, and George Hamilton
.
In 1961 Coe and Brett Halsey
played magazine
writer
s Paul Templin and Ben Gregory, respectively, with Gary Lockwood
as their research
er, Eric Jason. The program was set in Honolulu
, Hawaii
, and the writers often ventured into private detective
work. Despite some memorable episodes, Follow the Sun was cancelled after twenty-nine segments.
After Follow the Sun folded, Coe guest starred in 1962 on the first episode of the fourth season of NBC
's Western
series Bonanza
. He portrayed ranch
hand Clay Stafford, who reveals himself to be the "fifth" Cartwright, a half brother to Little Joe (Michael Landon
) via their mother Marie. Although stepfather Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene
) and Joe take Clay at his word, the other Cartwright brothers, Hoss (Dan Blocker
) and Adam (Pernell Roberts
) are skeptical and intend to investigate Clay's claim. The episode called "The First Born" could have introduced Coe as a new cast member. Entertainment writer Hal Ericson reported that friction (i.e. job security) on the set caused Bonanza producers to stick with the three brothers.
In 1960, Coe appeared as Stu Christian in One Foot in Hell with Alan Ladd
and Don Murray
, the story of a man whose wife dies because he could not afford medication that cost $1.87. He was Phylon in The 300 Spartans
in 1962. In 1966, he appeared as an unnamed communications aide in Fantastic Voyage
and as Walt Kilby in The Cat. He starred as Fred Saunders in Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls in 1973 and as an unnamed reporter in Gregory Peck
's MacArthur
in 1977. His last film role was as Tom Andrews in Jaws 2
in 1978. He had a brief stint as Joel Stratton in the ABC soap opera
General Hospital
in 1974. There were other television appearances too, including ABC's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
, NBC's Bracken's World
, and CBS
's Mission: Impossible
starring Peter Graves
.
From the late 1970s into the early 1980s, Coe was "Mr. Goodwrench" in television advertising
for a chain of national auto parts stores.
Coe is married to the former Jorunn Kristiansen, who was a Norwegian beauty queen in the 1950s and now a painter (born 1940). Their son is William Shea Coe (born 1966). In the 1980s, Barry Coe's daughter attended the University of Southern California
in Los Angeles. Barry Coe had a side business in nutritional supplements—Adventures in Nutrition; labels for the containers were printed by Joe Faust. He lived in the wealthy town of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
for several years.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
who appeared in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
from 1956-1978. Many of his motion pictures parts were minor, but he co-starred in one series, Follow the Sun
Follow the Sun (TV series)
Follow the Sun is an American drama series which ran for thirty episodes on the ABC television network from September 17, 1961, through April 8, 1962.-Synopsis:...
, which aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
during the 1961-1962 season, and also played the recognizable "Mr. Goodwrench" on TV commercials in the 70s and 80s.
Life and career
Barry was born in Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
to an American publicist and a Scottish immigrant mother. His father was publicist at Warner Brothers in the 1920s and 1930s and represented a list of stars that included Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
, John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
, and Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert
Edward Albert Heimberger , known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing...
. His father died from a car crash on Laurel Canyon
Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California
Laurel Canyon is a canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was first developed in the 1910s, and became a part of the city of Los Angeles in 1923 ....
when Barry was six years old, and his mother married an engineer after his death. Coe attended the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
and was discovered by a talent scout during a trip with his fraternity to Palm Springs in the mid-1950s. Thereafter he was signed under contract for 20th Century Fox as an actor.
Coe's first film appearance was as Mr. Davis in Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's Love Me Tender
Love Me Tender (1956 film)
Love Me Tender is a 1956 American black-and-white CinemaScope motion picture directed by Robert D. Webb, and released by 20th Century Fox on November 21, 1956. The film, named after the song, stars Richard Egan, Debra Paget, and Elvis Presley in his film debut. It is in the Western genre with...
in 1956. While at the 20Th Century Fox studios he went on a date with actress Barbara Eden
Barbara Eden
Barbara Eden is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early years:...
. The next year he played the lustful Rodney Harrington
Rodney Harrington
Rod Harrington is a fictional character on the television drama Peyton Place. He was portrayed by Ryan O'Neal. He was also a character on the 1957 film adaptation of the original novel. In this version, he was portrayed by Barry Coe.-Film version:...
in the original Peyton Place
Peyton Place (film)
Peyton Place is a 1957 American drama film directed by Mark Robson. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.-Plot:...
film, based on the Grace Metalious novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. In 1958, he appeared in The Bravados
The Bravados
The Bravados is a 1958 western film , directed by Henry King starring Gregory Peck and Joan Collins. The CinemaScope film was based on a novel of the same name written by Frank O'Rourke.-Plot:...
, and in 1959, he was cast in But Not for Me
But Not for Me (film)
But Not for Me is a 1959 Paramount Pictures comedy film starring Clark Gable and Carroll Baker. It is based on the play Accent on Youth written by Samson Raphaelson.-Cast:*Clark Gable ... Russell 'Russ' Ward*Carroll Baker ... Ellie Brown / Borden...
.
In 1960, Coe secured a Golden Globe award for the Most Promising Newcomer - Male, along with James Shigeta
James Shigeta
James Shigeta is an American film and television actor. He is also a standards singer, musical theatre and nightclub performer, and recording artist. He is a Nisei or second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.-Early life:...
, Troy Donahue
Troy Donahue
Troy Donahue was an American actor, who was active between the late 1950s and late 1990s.-Life and career:...
, and George Hamilton
George Hamilton (actor)
George Stevens Hamilton is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Hamilton was the youngest son of bandleader George "Spike" Hamilton and his first wife, Ann Stevens . He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas...
.
In 1961 Coe and Brett Halsey
Brett Halsey
Brett Halsey , is an American film actor, sometimes credited as Montgomery Ford. He is best known as the original John Abbott on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, a role he held from May 1980 to March 1981, before being replaced by Jerry Douglas.-Career:Interested in acting since he was a...
played magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
s Paul Templin and Ben Gregory, respectively, with Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood is an American actor probably best known for his iconic 1968 role as the astronaut Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey.-Early life:...
as their research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
er, Eric Jason. The program was set in Honolulu
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, and the writers often ventured into private detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
work. Despite some memorable episodes, Follow the Sun was cancelled after twenty-nine segments.
After Follow the Sun folded, Coe guest starred in 1962 on the first episode of the fourth season of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
. He portrayed ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
hand Clay Stafford, who reveals himself to be the "fifth" Cartwright, a half brother to Little Joe (Michael Landon
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
) via their mother Marie. Although stepfather Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
) and Joe take Clay at his word, the other Cartwright brothers, Hoss (Dan Blocker
Dan Blocker
Dan Blocker was an American actor best remembered for his role as Eric "Hoss" Cartwright in the NBC western television series Bonanza.-Early life:...
) and Adam (Pernell Roberts
Pernell Roberts
Pernell Elvin Roberts, Jr. was an American stage, movie and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest starring in over 60 television series, he was widely known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son, Adam Cartwright, on the western series Bonanza, a role he played from...
) are skeptical and intend to investigate Clay's claim. The episode called "The First Born" could have introduced Coe as a new cast member. Entertainment writer Hal Ericson reported that friction (i.e. job security) on the set caused Bonanza producers to stick with the three brothers.
In 1960, Coe appeared as Stu Christian in One Foot in Hell with Alan Ladd
Alan Ladd
-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was the only child of Ina Raleigh Ladd and Alan Ladd, Sr. He was of English ancestry. His father died when he was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...
and Don Murray
Don Murray (actor)
Donald Patrick "Don" Murray is an American actor.-Early life and career:Murray was born in Hollywood, California on July 31, 1929, the only child of Dennis Aloisius, a Broadway dance director and stage manager and Ethel Murray, a former Ziegfeld performer...
, the story of a man whose wife dies because he could not afford medication that cost $1.87. He was Phylon in The 300 Spartans
The 300 Spartans
The 300 Spartans is a 1962 Cinemascope film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. Made with the cooperation of the Greek government, it was shot in the village of Perachora in the Peloponnese...
in 1962. In 1966, he appeared as an unnamed communications aide in Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 science fiction film written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby.Bantam Books obtained the rights for a paperback novelization based on the screenplay and approached Isaac Asimov to write it....
and as Walt Kilby in The Cat. He starred as Fred Saunders in Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls in 1973 and as an unnamed reporter in Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
's MacArthur
MacArthur (film)
MacArthur is a 1977 American biographical war film directed by Joseph Sargent and starring Gregory Peck in the eponymous role as American General Douglas MacArthur.-Plot:...
in 1977. His last film role was as Tom Andrews in Jaws 2
Jaws 2
Jaws 2 is a 1978 thriller film and the first sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws , which is based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name...
in 1978. He had a brief stint as Joel Stratton in the ABC soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
in 1974. There were other television appearances too, including ABC's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an American science fiction film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, released by 20th Century Fox in 1961. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane...
, NBC's Bracken's World
Bracken's World
Bracken's World is an American drama series broadcast on NBC from September 19, 1969 to December 25, 1970. The series was created and produced by Dorothy Kingsley.-Synopsis:...
, and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
starring Peter Graves
Peter Graves (actor)
Peter Aurness , known professionally as Peter Graves, was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973...
.
From the late 1970s into the early 1980s, Coe was "Mr. Goodwrench" in television advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
for a chain of national auto parts stores.
Coe is married to the former Jorunn Kristiansen, who was a Norwegian beauty queen in the 1950s and now a painter (born 1940). Their son is William Shea Coe (born 1966). In the 1980s, Barry Coe's daughter attended the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
in Los Angeles. Barry Coe had a side business in nutritional supplements—Adventures in Nutrition; labels for the containers were printed by Joe Faust. He lived in the wealthy town of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...
for several years.