Jered Barclay, the veteran stage and screen actor who performed in vaudeville and later had voice-over roles in TVs smurfs and Transformers, has passed away. He was 91 years ago.
Barclay died on July 23 in North Hollywood of MDS Leukemia, a death announced by actress Myra Turley, his longtime friend with whom he performed in an award-winning two-person play. A seductivedirected by Harvey Perr.
Although he was also a director, photojournalist and acting coach, Barclay’s career spanned nearly nine decades. He began his career in 1934 at the age of three, performing in vaudeville with Judy Garland, Shirley Temple and Sammy Davis Jr. At age 6 he became a radio actor and at age 12 Barclay was traveling with the Clyde Beatty Circus for his theatrical debut at 14.
After earning a BA in Drama from the University of Washington, Barclay moved to Los Angeles and appeared in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock presents, at Lillian Hellman’s The children’s hour, the man with the golden armdirected by Otto Preminger, and he played John Compo in Roger Corman’s 1958 sci-fi fantasy film War of the Satellites.
As Jerry Barclay, he appeared in cowboy classics like Rawhide, Bonanza, Cheyenne, Bronco, The Dakotas, Lawman, Colt .45 and rifle sling. In 1962, Barclay 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 Dreamdirected by Alan Schneider.
A year later, in 1963, Barclay played Meff in James Saunders’ Next time I’ll sing for you with Estelle Parsons and James Earl Jones, and on Broadway he played Deuperret in Peter Weiss’s Marat Saido 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 such as Rue McClanahan and Dixie Carter, as well as Johnny DeppLiza Minelli, Lily TomlinPatrick Swayze and Josh Brolin. In 1993, Barclay became an international travel photojournalist, covering all seven continents and 108 countries for 27 publications.