RIP Jered Barkley

 

Jered Barclay, Screen and Stage Veteran, Dies at 91

The actor, director, photojournalist and acting coach also voiced animated roles in 'Smurfs' and 'Transformers.'

 

The Hollywood Reporter

By Etan Vlessing

July 27, 2022

 

Jered Barclay, the veteran stage and screen actor who performed in vaudeville and had voiceover roles in TV’s Smurfs and Transformers, has died. He was 91.

Barclay died Saturday in North Hollywood from MDS Leukemia, actress Myra Turley, his longtime friend with whom he performed in the two-person play A Tantalizing, directed by Harvey Perr, announced.

Also a director, photojournalist and acting coach, Barclay began his nine-decade career in 1934 at age 3, performing in vaudeville with Judy Garland, Shirley Temple and Sammy Davis Jr. At 6, he became a radio actor and at 12 traveled with the Clyde Beatty Circus before his theatrical debut at 14.

After receiving a B.A in drama from the University of Washington, Barclay moved to Los Angeles and performed on three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, in Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour and in Otto Preminger’s The Man With the Golden Arm, and he played John Compo in Roger Corman’s 1958 sci-fi fantasy flick War of the Satellites.

As Jerry Barclay, he appeared in such cowboy classics as Rawhide, Bonanza, Cheyenne, Bronco, The Dakotas, Lawman, Colt .45 and Gunslinger.  Then in 1962, he moved to New York to perform in two Edward Albee plays, as Jerry in  Zoo Story, directed by Eddie Parone, and as a young man in The American Dream, directed by Alan Schneider.

In 1963, Barclay played Meff in James Saunders’ Next Time I’ll Sing to You alongside Estelle Parsons and James Earl Jones, and on Broadway he portrayed Deuperret in Peter Weiss’ Marat Sade and Ludwig Max von Kupfer in John Osborne’s A Patriot for Me.

Barclay did animated voiceovers for Hanna-Barbera’s Foofur, The Little Rascals, Challenge of the GoBots, The Dukes, The Kwicky Koala Show and The Smurfs. He also played Cerebros in The Transformers.

In the 1980s, Barclay launched a coaching career with actors like Rue McClanahan and  Dixie Carter, as well as Johnny Depp, Liza Minnelli, Lily Tomlin, Patrick Swayze and Josh Brolin. In 1993, he became an international travel photojournalist, covering all seven continents and 108 countries for 27 publications.

 

BARCLAY, Jered

Born: 11/22/1930, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Died: 7/23/2022, North Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

 

Jered Barclay’s westerns – actor:

Cheyenne (TV) – 1957 (Les)

The Gray Ghost (TV) – 1957 (Blanton)

Valerie (TV) – 1957 (Mingo)

Gun Fever – 1958 (Singer)

Gunman from Laredo – 1959 (Jordan Keefer)

Colt .45 (TV) – 1960 (Tip Cooper)

Rawhide (TV) – 1960 (Franz Zwahlen)

Lawman (TV) – 1961 (Bert Quade)

Bronco (TV) – 1962 (Clay Ferraday)

Bonanza (TV) – 1963 (Cal Brennan)

The Dakotas (TV) – 1963 (Glenn Weems)

Gunslinger (TV) – 1967 (Lieutenant Evans)