Barton Yarborough
Encyclopedia
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 worked extensively in radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
.
As a youth, Yarborough ran away from home, attracted by the vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
stages, and he first worked in radio during the 1920s. He married radio actress Barbara Jo Allen
Barbara Jo Allen
Barbara Jo Allen was an actress also known as Vera Vague, the spinster character she created and portrayed on radio and in films during the 1940s and 1950s. She based the character on a woman she had seen delivering a PTA literature lecture in a confused manner...
(later known professionally as Vera Vague); they divorced in 1931.
In 1932, Yarborough began a long run as Clifford Barbour on One Man's Family
One Man's Family
One Man's Family, is a long-running American radio soap opera. It was heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse, it was the longest-running uninterrupted serial in the history of American radio...
, continuing in the role throughout his life. Yarborough was probably best known for his roles as Doc Long on Carlton E. Morse
Carlton E. Morse
Carlton Errol Morse was a Louisiana-born producer/journalist best known for his creation of the radio serial One Man's Family, which debuted in 1932 and ran until 1959 as one of the most popular as well as long-running radio soap operas of the time. He also was responsible for the radio serial I...
's I Love a Mystery
I Love a Mystery
I Love a Mystery was a radio drama series about three friends who ran a detective agency and traveled the world in search of adventure. Distinguished by the high octane scripting of Carlton E...
and Sergeant Ben Romero, Joe Friday's original partner, on Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
.
Yarborough's other radio work includes the role of Skip Turner in Adventures by Morse
Adventures by Morse
Adventures by Morse was a 52-episode syndicated adventure series produced, written and directed by Carlton E. Morse shortly after NBC canceled his I Love a Mystery series.-Characters and stories:...
, also by Carlton E. Morse. Yarborough appeared as Doc Long in three feature films for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, based on the radio series I Love a Mystery: I Love a Mystery
I Love a Mystery (film)
I Love a Mystery is a 1945 drama film directed by Henry Levin and starring Jim Bannon, Nina Foch, George Macready and Barton Yarborough. Based on Carlton E...
in 1945, The Devil's Mask and The Unknown
The Unknown (1946 film)
The Unknown is a 1946 mystery film directed by Henry Levin made by Columbia Pictures as part of its I Love a Mystery series based on the popular radio program....
.
He started work on the Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
television series in 1951. However, the day after he filmed the second episode, he suffered a heart attack and died four days later at age 51. On Dragnet, the character of Ben Romero was replaced by Officer Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and on One Man's Family the character of Cliff Barbour, heard for 19 years, was dropped from the storyline.