Lynn Bari


Lynn Bari was an American film actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in roughly 150 films for 20th Century Fox, from the early 1930s through the 1940s.

Early years

Bari was born on December 18, 1919, in Roanoke, Virginia, to John Manard Fisher of Lynchburg, Virginia, and his wife Marjorie Babcock Halpen, a native of Albany, New York. Her father was a successful auto sales manager who for many years worked for a Roanoke car dealership, Harper Motor. In 1925, he left his job and moved the family to his hometown, Lynchburg, where he opened a car dealership of his own. Two years later, heavily in debt and struggling to make a sizeable profit, he took his own life while away on a business trip by jumping out of a hotel window. After selling everything to settle debts his widow was left with little money to support her two children, John, her elder, Marjorie and her. To make ends meet, she arranged for her sister, Ellen, who with her husband lived in Melrose, Massachusetts, to take in her and her children. Failing to find work in Melrose she moved to Boston, where she met and soon married Reverend Robert Bitzer, a Religious Science minister, in March 1929.
Bari later recalled other children at school in Boston made life miserable for her brother and her, making constant fun of their obvious Southern accents. Determined to eliminate hers, she became involved with amateur theatrics and took elocution lessons. She was enthusiastic when at the age of 13 she was told her stepfather had been reassigned to Los Angeles, where he later became the head of the Institute of Religious Science.
When she was 14 and attending drama school, Bari adopted the stage name Lynn Barrie, a composite of the names of theater actress Lynn Fontanne and author J. M. Barrie. After reading a story about the Italian city of Bari, she decided to change the spelling.

Career

Sixteen year-old Bari was one of 14 young women "launched on the trail of film stardom" August 6, 1935, when they each received a six-month contract with 20th Century Fox after spending 18 months in the company's training school. The contracts included a studio option for renewal for as long as seven years.
In most of her early films Bari had uncredited parts usually playing receptionists or chorus girls. She struggled to find starring roles in movies. Rare leading roles included China Girl, Hello, Frisco, Hello, and The Spiritualist. In B movies, Bari was usually cast as a "man-killer", as in Orchestra Wives, or a villainess, notably Shock and Nocturne. An exception was the dramatic lead in The Bridge of San Luis Rey. During World War II, according to a survey taken of GIs, Bari was the second-most popular pinup girl after the much better-known Betty Grable.
Bari's film career fizzled out in the early 1950s when she was just in her early 30s, but she continued to work at a limited pace over the next two decades, playing matronly characters rather than temptresses.
She portrayed the mother of a suicidal teenager in a 1951 drama On the Loose and a number of supporting parts. A flashy comedic role came her way the following year as the nouveau riche, snobbish mother in Douglas Sirk's Has Anybody Seen My Gal?
Bari's last film appearance was as the mother of rebellious teenager Patty McCormack in The Young Runaways.
She quickly took up the rising medium of television during the 1950s; she starred in the live television sitcom Detective's Wife, which ran during the summer of 1950. In 1952, Bari starred in her own sitcom Boss Lady, a summer replacement for NBC's Fireside Theater. She portrayed Gwen F. Allen, the beautiful top executive of a construction firm.
In 1955, Bari appeared in the episode "The Beautiful Miss X" of Rod Cameron's City Detective. In 1960, she played female bandit Belle Starr in the debut episode "Perilous Passage" of Overland Trail.
Her final TV appearances were in episodes of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. and The FBI.
Commenting on her "other woman" roles, Bari once said "I seem to be a woman always with a gun in her purse. I'm terrified of guns. I go from one set to the other shooting people and stealing husbands!"
In the 1960s, Bari toured in a production of Barefoot in the Park, playing the bride's mother.

Personal life

In Foxy Lady, an authorized biography by film historian Jeff Gordon written from interviews conducted shortly before her death, Bari suggested that, despite a 35-year career with over 166 film and television roles, a more promising career was sabotaged by unresolved problems with her domineering, alcoholic mother and her three marriages.
Bari was married to agent Walter Kane, producer Sidney Luft, and psychiatrist Nathan Rickles. Bari and Luft married November 28, 1943. They divorced December 26, 1950. She and Rickles wed August 30, 1955; they divorced in 1972. Bari's first child, a daughter with Luft, was born August 7, 1945, in St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, but died the next day. Two years later, she had a son, John Michael Luft. John Michael was the subject of "a bitter custody battle" between Luft and Bari. A judge in Los Angeles ruled in Bari's favor in November 1958, ruling that the Luft household "was an improper place in which to rear the boy."
After retiring from acting in the 1970s, Bari moved to Santa Barbara, California. In her last years, she suffered increasing problems with arthritis.

Death

On November 20, 1989, Bari was found dead in her home in Santa Monica, California, of an apparent heart attack. She was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Bari has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 6116 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 6323 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

  • Meet the Baron as College Girl
  • Dancing Lady as Chorus Girl
  • I Am Suzanne as Audience Member
  • Search for Beauty as Beauty Contestant Entrant
  • Caravan as Blonde Gypsy Girl at Inn
  • David Harum as Young Townswoman
  • Coming Out Party as Party Guest
  • Bottoms Up as Chorine
  • Stand Up and Cheer! as White House Secretary / Chorine
  • Handy Andy as Girl at Train Station
  • 365 Nights in Hollywood as Showgirl
  • Music in the Air as Dancer
  • Charlie Chan in Paris as Club Patron
  • Under Pressure as Blonde Brooklyn Girl
  • The Great Hotel Murder as Wilson's Receptionist
  • George White's 1935 Scandals as Chorine
  • $10 Raise as Secretary
  • Spring Tonic as Bridesmaid
  • Doubting Thomas as Aspiring Actress
  • The Daring Young Man as Bridesmaid
  • Dante's Inferno as Beach Girl
  • Curly Top as Amusement Park Patron
  • Welcome Home as Bridesmaid
  • Orchids to You as Southern Belle Shop Patron
  • Redheads on Parade as Waitress
  • Ladies Love Danger as Chorus Girl
  • The Gay Deception as Royal Banquet Extra / Dance Extra
  • Charlie Chan in Shanghai as Second Hotel Switchboard Operator
  • Way Down East as Dancing Girl at Party
  • Metropolitan as Chorus Girl
  • Music Is Magic as Theatre Cashier
  • Thanks a Million as Phone Operator
  • The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo as Flower Girl
  • Show Them No Mercy! as Crowd Scene Member
  • Professional Soldier as Gypsy Dancer
  • King of Burlesque as Dancer
  • My Marriage as Pat
  • It Had to Happen as Secretary
  • Song and Dance Man as Showgirl
  • Everybody's Old Man as Secretary, Miss Burke
  • The Great Ziegfeld as Ziegfeld Girl
  • Gentle Julia as Young Lady Outside Church / Jealous Girl at Dance
  • Private Number as Gambler
  • Poor Little Rich Girl as Radio Station Receptionist
  • 36 Hours to Kill as Traveler
  • Girls' Dormitory as Student
  • Sing, Baby, Sing as Hotel Telephone Operator
  • Star for a Night as Chorus Girl
  • Ladies in Love as Dress Shop Clerk
  • 15 Maiden Lane as Crowd Scene Participant
  • Pigskin Parade as Football Game Spectator
  • Under Your Spell as Airplane Passenger
  • Crack-Up as Office Worker
  • Woman-Wise as Secretary
  • On the Avenue as Chorus Girl / Mrs. Mary Jackson
  • Time Out for Romance as Bridesmaid
  • Love Is News as 'Babe' - Switchboard Operator
  • Fair Warning as Candy Counter Girl
  • Cafe Metropole as Cafe Patron
  • This Is My Affair as Party Guest with Keller
  • Sing and Be Happy as Secretary
  • Wee Willie Winkie as Crowd Scene Participant
  • She Had to Eat as Crowd Scene Participant
  • Wake Up and Live as Chorus Girl
  • The Lady Escapes as Bridesmaid
  • You Can't Have Everything as Chorus Girl
  • Wife, Doctor and Nurse as Party Girl
  • Life Begins in College as Coed
  • Lancer Spy as Miss Fenwick
  • Ali Baba Goes to Town as Harem Girl
  • 45 Fathers as Telephone Operator
  • Love and Hisses as Nightclub Patron
  • City Girl as Waitress
  • The Baroness and the Butler as Klari - Maid
  • Walking Down Broadway as Sandra De Voe
  • Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm as Myrtle
  • Mr. Moto's Gamble as Penny Kendall
  • Battle of Broadway as Marjorie Clark
  • Josette as Mrs. Elaine Dupree
  • Speed to Burn as Marion Clark
  • Always Goodbye as Jessica Reid
  • I'll Give a Million as Cecelia
  • Meet the Girls as Terry Wilson
  • Sharpshooters as Dianne Woodward
  • Pardon Our Nerve as Terry Wilson
  • The Return of the Cisco Kid as Ann Carver
  • Chasing Danger as Renée Claire
  • News Is Made at Night as Maxine Thomas
  • Hotel for Women as Barbara Hunter
  • Hollywood Cavalcade as Actress in 'The Man Who Came Back'
  • Pack Up Your Troubles as Yvonne
  • Charlie Chan in City in Darkness as Marie Dubon
  • City of Chance as Julie Reynolds
  • Free, Blonde and 21 as Carol Northrup
  • Lillian Russell as Edna McCauley
  • Earthbound as Linda Reynolds
  • Pier 13 as Sally Kelly
  • Kit Carson as Dolores Murphy
  • Charter Pilot as Marge Duncan
  • Sleepers West as Kay Bentley
  • Blood and Sand as Encarnacion
  • Sun Valley Serenade as Vivian Dawn
  • We Go Fast as Rose Coughlin
  • Moon Over Her Shoulder as Susan Rossiter
  • The Perfect Snob as Chris Mason
  • The Night Before the Divorce as Lynn Nordyke
  • Secret Agent of Japan as Kay Murdock
  • The Falcon Takes Over as Ann Riordan
  • The Magnificent Dope as Claire Harris
  • Orchestra Wives as Jaynie Stevens
  • China Girl as Captain Fifi
  • Hello, Frisco, Hello as Bernice Croft
  • The Bridge of San Luis Rey as Michaela Villegas
  • Tampico as Katherine 'Kathy' Hall
  • Sweet and Low-Down as Pat Stirling
  • Captain Eddie as Adelaide Frost Rickenbacker
  • Shock as Nurse Elaine Jordan
  • Home Sweet Homicide as Marian Carstairs
  • Margie as Miss Isabel Palmer
  • Nocturne as Frances Ransom
  • Man From Texas as Zee Simms - alias Zee Heath
  • The Amazing Mr. X as Christine Faber
  • The Kid from Cleveland as Katherine Jackson
  • I'd Climb the Highest Mountain as Mrs. Billywith
  • On the Loose as Alice Bradley
  • Sunny Side of the Street as Mary
  • I Dream of Jeanie as Mrs. McDowell
  • Has Anybody Seen My Gal? as Harriet Blaisdell
  • Francis Joins the WACS as Maj. Louise Simpson
  • Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops as Leota Van Cleef
  • The Women of Pitcairn Island as Maimiti
  • Damn Citizen as Pat Noble
  • Elfego Baca: Six Gun Law as Mrs. Simmons
  • Trauma as Helen Garrison
  • The Young Runaways as Mrs. Donford