Dave Barry

Biography

Dave Barry began his performing career in the 1930's at the age of sixteen. The son of a furniture store owner, he made his debut on the radio talent show "Major Bowes and the Original Amateur Hour" -- as did another talented voice-over artist, Sara Berner. Known initially as Dave Siegel, he built up a reputation as a stand-up comedian, entertaining troops during his military service in World War II and later became something of a fixture in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn and the El Rancho Hotel. For eight years, he provided the opening act for Wayne Newton. Barry was also a frequent guest on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) and appeared in occasional motion pictures, most visibly in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) (as band manager Beinstock). Since he excelled at mimicry and mastered a variety of accents and dialects, he was often sought after as a voice actor for animation by both Columbia and Warner Brothers. His special forte was imitating distinctive celebrities (including Groucho Marx, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, James Cagney and Clark Gable), which he did with gusto in a number of Looney Tunes cartoons. Barry also provided the voice for Popeye's nemesis, Bluto, in three short films between 1942 and 1944. He voiced Elmer Fudd in Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958), standing in for Arthur Q. Bryan. Voice-overs, inevitably, came second to his primary vocation as a comedian. He continued to do stand-up well into the 1990's, plying his craft in Las Vegas, on cruise ships and with The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies in California.