Robert Barrat: Movies & Filmography

Robert Barrat was born Robert Harriot Barrat on July 10, 1891 in New York City, where he attended the public schools before briefly entering college. He abandoned his studies during his sophomore year and embarked on a globe‑trotting adventure aboard a tramp steamer that took him to Central America, England, France and South America. Upon returning to the United States he spent two years laboring on his brother's farm near Springfield, Massachusetts, an experience that grounded him before he discovered a chorus opening in a musical comedy. His early professional life was itinerant, moving between stock theater companies and vaudeville stages on the Keith and Orpheum circuits, which honed his versatility as a performer. Back in New York he appeared in the production The Weavers at the Garden Theatre and later amassed an extensive list of Broadway credits including Lilly Turner, Bulls, Bears and Asses, and Kid Boots. In the early 1930s he transitioned to Hollywood, where over a four‑decade film career he appeared in roughly 150 pictures, often cast as authoritative figures, military officers or historical personalities. Notable performances include the murder victim Archer Coe in The Kennel Murder Case (1933), the treacherous Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), and the cantankerous saloon owner “Red” Baxter in the Marx Brothers’ western comedy Go West (1940). He also portrayed iconic American figures such as Davy Crockett, Zachary Taylor, Abraham Lincoln and General Douglas MacArthur in several war‑time dramas. During the mid‑1950s Barrat smoothly shifted to television, guest‑starring in series like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which marked his final on‑screen appearance in 1964. He died of a heart ailment on January 7, 1970 in Hollywood, aged 78, and was survived by his wife Mary Dean; he rests at Green Hill Cemetery in Martinsburg, West Virginia.