Harry Bartell
Harry Bartell was born November 28, 1913 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He would become famous for his acting in radio, television, and film. He grew up in Houston and got his start in radio at the station KPRC. He then moved to California to continue his career.
He performed on Escape with producer Norman MacDonnell. He also was an actor on the radio series Gunsmoke from 1952 until 1961 and he appeared on the television version of the show playing some of the same roles he did on radio.
Harry Bartell was popular as a voice actor in the Western genre and besides Gunsmoke, he worked on The Six Shooter,Frontier Gentleman, Fort Laramie, and Have Gun Will Travel.
But he wasn’t limited to Westerns. He also played in situation comedies and dramas and could be heard in, Dragnet, Let George Do It, Adventures of Phillip Marlowe, Crime Classics, CBS Radio Workshop, Adventures of Nero Wolf, Casebook of Gregory Hood, Wild Bill Hickok and Adventures of Masie. In fact if you do a power search in RUSC with his name you will come across four pages of shows he appeared in! He was well known for having a voice that sounded youthful despite his age.
He was also an accomplished announcer and could be heard hosting the Sherlock Holmes shows with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce between 1943 and 1946 as spokesman for the Petri Wine Company. I still have a few of these episodes to add so look out for them coming up on RUSC.
He went on to appear in television shows with guest roles in Get Smart, Wild Wild West, The Twilight Zone, and I Love Lucyand took his roles in the radio version of Dragnet to the small screen.
His film career was substantially smaller, but he did star in the movie version of Dragnet and was in Monkey Business.
Besides being one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, Bartell enjoyed life as a photographer. The book entitled Gunsmoke: A Complete History includes many of his photographs of the cast of Gunsmoke.
In his later years, Bartell took time to look back at his career during the golden age of radio. He was often seen at conventions focusing on what has become affectionately known as old-time-radio. He became involved in the Internet by writing articles about old-time-radio and could be found participating in online chats about his radio days.s final role was in a French radio show The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes that was recorded in 2003. Bartell passed away on the 26th of February 2004, aged 91, leaving a huge legacy of his work.
He was one of the most well known, hardworking actors in old time radio. You can appreciate his work today as you listen to recordings of the many shows in which he acted.
Happy listening my friends,
