Barry Atwater - Life and Career

Life and Career

The son of a renowned landscape painter of the same name, Garrett Atwater was born in Denver, Colorado. He served as head of the UCLA Sound Department before he began his acting career. His work teaching audio techniques led to a role in the student film A Time Out of War, a Civil War allegory that won the Oscar as best short film of 1954.

He began appearing often in television episodes, often as a primary guest star, even playing the title characters on episodes of such shows as The Millionaire, Meet McGraw, The Court of Last Resort, One Step Beyond (as Abraham Lincoln), and Cheyenne (as George Custer). By 1960, he had achieved enough stature to be named by host Rod Serling in the on-screen promo as one of the stars of the well-known Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street". Atwater made six guest appearances on Perry Mason. In 1963, he played Ronald Hewes, the title character, in "The Case of the Prankish Professor"; in 1964, he played attorney Karl Dickinson in "The Case of the Nervous Neighbor", and in 1965, he again played the title character, Dr. Stuart Logan, in "The Case of the Cheating Chancellor". This flourishing period of TV appearances coincided with some major supporting roles in low-budget movies; otherwise, film was an only occasionally fertile medium for him. Atwater also performed regularly on stage throughout his career.

In the mid-1960s, Atwater spent three years on the soap opera General Hospital while also working in prime-time appearances, billing himself as "G.B." Atwater from 1963 to 1965, during a period in which he (like many other actors who had thrived on 1950s anthology shows) was cast in supporting parts. However, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, Atwater was again scoring primary guest-star roles, particularly on fantasy and sci-fi series—including The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Night Gallery and Kung Fu — where his altered facial appearance suited his grim and sinister countenance. By the mid-1970s, he was relegated to featured television parts and small bits in movies, and he returned to UCLA to teach television and film sound production.