Barry Coe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Barry S. Coe | |
|---|---|
| Born | Barry S. Coe November 26, 1934 Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Former actor |
| Spouse(s) | Jorunn Kristiansen Coe (born 1940) |
Barry S. Coe (born November 26, 1934, in Los Angeles) 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.
Barry was born in 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, 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. 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.[1]
In 1960, Coe secured a Golden Globe award for the Most Promising Newcomer - Male, along with James Shigeta, Troy Donahue, and George Hamilton.[2]
In 1961 Coe and Brett Halsey played magazine writers Paul Templin and Ben Gregory, respectively, with Gary Lockwood as their researcher, 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.[3]
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 father 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 on the set caused Bonanza producers to stick with the three brothers.[4]
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.[5] 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.[6]
From the late 1970s into the early 1980s, Coe was "Mr. Goodwrench" in television advertising for a chain of national auto parts stores.[7]
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, a daughter of Barry Coe's went to 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.
