Barton Yarborough Biography

BARTON YARBOROUGH BIOGRAPHY

2nd October 1900 - 19th December 1951

William Barton Yarborough was born in Texas to Patrick D. and Mollie Ardena Yarborough on October 2,1900. He began his acting career in the theater, where he studied with the Eva Le Gallienne Company, and though he would go on to work in all four areas of show business, Theater, Film, Radio and Television, it would be his work in radio that would be best remembered. He starred in several long-running programs as well as guest starred on many others, and it wasn't long before Barton Yarborough became one of radio's busiest character actors.

On Friday, April 29,1932 NBC aired its newest soap opera from 9:30 to 10:00pm. It told the story of Henry and Fanny Barbour and their five children, Paul, Hazel, Claudia, Clifford and Jack. The show was One Man's Family and in the role of Clifford was Barton Yarborough. He would remain with the series until his death in 1951. The show ran until May 8, 1959, leaving behind 3256 episodes (and that's not counting repeats), making it the longest-running series on American radio.

I Love A Mystery first aired on Monday, January 16, 1939 on NBC. The show was produced by One Man's Family producer Carlton Morse and starred three of Family's cast members. Pulling double duty was Michael Raffetto as Jack, Barton as Doc Long and Walter Paterson as Reggie. Joan Blondell's sister, Gloria, joined the three adventurers as Gerry Booker. It aired Monday through Friday as a fifteen-minute show, but later became a weekly half-hour show. Each adventure would run between 12 and 25 shows.

The first episode consisting of 14 parts was The Case Of The Roxy Mob. It ran from January 16 1939 to February 2, 1939.  In 1945 Columbia Pictures brought the radio show to the screen for three films, 1945 - I Love A Mystery, 1946 - The Devil's Mask and 1946 - The Unknown in which Barton played the role of Doc Long. On December 29,1949, Bart's last adventure on I Love A Mystery aired. It was called Find Elsa Holberg - Dead or Alive.

On July 31, 1948, Barton guest-starred with Hans Conreid on the radio crime drama, Jeff Regan, Investigator. The star of the show was a 28-year-old named Jack Webb and the two would become great friends which would lead him to be cast in probably his most remembered role on radio in 1949.

That new show was of course Dragnet which Jack Webb not only created, wrote, produced and directed but also starred. This was his dream and he wanted Bart to be a part of it.  The new show was going to be a real-life cop show. It would be about two Los Angeles detectives and the stories would come straight from the files of the L.A.P.D. Chief William Parker offered his and his department's help.  Webb would star as Sgt. Joe Friday and Bart would co-star as Sgt. Ben Romero. Of all the partners Friday had, Romero was to be the only one to be equal in rank with Friday.

Homicide was the pilot episode and was aired on June 2, 1949. Friday and Romero are working Homicide division when two officers are gunned down. Frank Lovejoy guest-starred. He also played the part of Sleepy Stevens on 'The Cisco Kid' radio show.