Patricia Barry

Patricia Barry (born Patricia Allen White, November 16, 1922 – October 11, 2016) was an American actress.

Although Barry has numerous credits performing in stage productions and in films, the majority of her work was in television between 1950 and 2005, when she appeared in over 100 series either in supporting roles or as a guest star.

Barry was born in Davenport, Iowa. Her father was a physician. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she received her academic and practical training in acting in the school's drama department, which was administered by the distinguished Broadway actress and teacher Maude Adams. After Barry's graduation from college, she gained some professional experience on stage in 1944 before winning a Rita Hayworth look-alike contest. The resulting publicity from that contest led to Barry being signed to a Hollywood movie contract with Warner Bros.

Barry's theatrical debut came in summer theater at Peterborough, New Hampshire. Her credits on Broadway include The Pink Elephant (1953) and Goodbye Again (1956). She also starred in productions in Los Angeles, California, and Flagstaff, Arizona. She joined Maudie Edwards company at the Palace Theatre in Swansea 1952

Barry's performances in Hollywood productions began in 1946 with her involvement in five Warner Bros. films released that year. However, she received a screen credit–as Patricia White–in only one of those five, in The Beast with Five Fingers.

From 1947 to 1950, Barry gained additional acting experience in 16 other movies with Paramount Pictures, Columbia, RKO, and Gene Autry Productions.^{[citation needed]} As before, when credited for her performances in those films, she continued to be recognized by her maiden name. However, following her marriage to producer Philip Barry Jr. in 1950, she began to use her married name professionally. She returned to film work occasionally, including The Tattooed Stranger, Safe at Home!, Send Me No Flowers, and Dear Heart.

Following those performances, she appeared in a few other theatrical releases in the coming decades, but the vast majority of her work continued to be on television. Some of her other films during that latter stage of her career include The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker (1971), The End of August, (1982), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), For Keeps (1989), City Rhythms (1989), and Sea of Love (1989). In 2014, just two years before her death and 25 years after her role in Sea of Love, Barry appeared in Delusional, her final film.^{[citation needed]}

For over 50 years, Barry was a very popular supporting character and guest star on "the small screen", appearing in scores of television series and made-for-television movies. Her first role on television was in 1950, in The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse presentation "The Life of Vincent Van Gogh", with Everett Sloane playing the artist.^{[citation needed]} For the remainder of the 1950s and throughout the 1960s, she performed in nearly every genre of television programming, including contemporary televised plays, Westerns, situation comedies, doctor and detective series, courtroom dramas, and suspense, adventure, and science-fiction series.