James Barton

James Barton

Born: October 31, 1890
Died: February 19, 1962
in Gloucester City, New Jersey, USA
James Barton (November 1, 1890 - February 19, 1962) was an American vaudevillian and a character actor in films and television.

Born into a theatrical family in Gloucester City, New Jersey, Barton began performing in minstrel shows and burlesque houses throughout the country in 1898. His years of experience working with African American performers led to his becoming one of the first jazz dancers in America. After working with repertory companies in the South and Midwest, he made his Broadway debut in the musical revue The Passing Show of 1919 in a role originally intended for Ed Wynn. He frequently was the highlight in mediocre productions, and a critic for the Daily News noted, "Whenever the book failed him, he shuffled into one or more of his eccentric dances." Additional theatre credits include Sweet and Low, Tobacco Road, The Iceman Cometh, and Paint Your Wagon.

Barton's film career began in the silent era. His screen credits include The Time of Your Life, Here Comes the Groom, and The Misfits. On television he appeared in The Ford Television Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, Studio One, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, Playhouse 90, Kraft Television Theatre, The Rifleman, Adventures in Paradise, and Naked City.

Barton died of a heart attack in Mineola, New York.

Bing Crosby considered James Barton to be one his ten favorite performers of all time, alongside names such as Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland and Nat King Cole.

Description above from the Wikipedia article James Barton (vaudevillian), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for James Barton...

The Misfits
Title: The Misfits
Character: Fletcher's grandfather
Released: February 1, 1961
Type: Movie
While filing for a divorce, beautiful ex-stripper Roslyn Taber ends up meeting aging cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland and former World War II aviator Guido Racanelli. The two men instantly become infatuated with Roslyn and, on a whim, the three decide to move into Guido's half-finished desert home together. When grizzled ex-rodeo rider Perce Howland arrives, the unlikely foursome strike up a business capturing wild horses.
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Title: The Americans
Released: January 23, 1961
Type: TV
The Americans is a 17-episode American drama television series that aired on NBC from January to May 1961. Set during the American Civil War, the series focuses on two brothers fighting on opposite sides of the conflict.
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Title: Adventures in Paradise
Character: Rocky
Released: October 5, 1959
Type: TV
Adventures in Paradise is an American television series created by James Michener which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962, starring Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, the captain of the schooner Tiki III, which sailed the South Pacific looking for passengers and adventure. USA Network aired reruns of this series between 1984 and 1988. The plots deal with the romantic and detective stories of Korean War veteran Troy. The supporting cast, varying from season to season, features George Tobias, Guy Stockwell, and Linda Lawson.
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Title: New York Confidential
Released: January 1, 1959
Type: TV
New York Confidential is a British-American crime drama series that aired from 1958 to 1959. The series aired in syndicated in the United States and was broadcast on London's local ITV station, Associated-Rediffusion, in the UK. It was co-produced by ITC Entertainment, Metropolis Productions, Inc., and Television Programs of America.
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Title: Naked City
Character: Bo Giles
Released: September 30, 1958
Type: TV
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic “semi-documentary” format. In 1997, the episode “Sweet Prince of Delancey Street” was ranked #93 on TV Guide’s “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time”.
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Title: Naked City
Character: Tom Dobbins
Released: September 30, 1958
Type: TV
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic “semi-documentary” format. In 1997, the episode “Sweet Prince of Delancey Street” was ranked #93 on TV Guide’s “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time”.
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Title: Naked City
Character: Matty
Released: September 30, 1958
Type: TV
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic “semi-documentary” format. In 1997, the episode “Sweet Prince of Delancey Street” was ranked #93 on TV Guide’s “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time”.
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Title: The Rifleman
Released: September 30, 1958
Type: TV
The Rifleman is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black-and-white, half-hour episodes. "The Rifleman" aired on ABC from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963 as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first prime time series to have a widowed parent raise a child.
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Quantez
Title: Quantez
Character: Minstrel
Released: September 6, 1957
Type: Movie
A gang of bank robbers with a posse in hot pursuit. Riding into the desert, they take refuge in Quantez, a small town they find deserted. Their horses tired and near death, they’re forced to stay the night — with the plan to cross the border into Mexico the next day.
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The Naked Hills
Title: The Naked Hills
Character: Jimmo McCann
Released: June 17, 1956
Type: Movie
Tracy Powell, an Indiana farmer, gets the gold fever and heads for Stockton, California in 1849. There, he abandons his first partner, Bert Killian, and teams up with Sam Wilkins, a claim jumper employed by Willis Haver. Six years later, Powell returns to Indiana and his sweetheart, Julie. They marry and he tries farming again but, on the night their son is born, he takes off again searching for gold. This time he heads for the hills with an inveterate prospector, Jimmo McCann. A decade later, the two are still hunting for their big strike when McCann is killed in an accident. Powell returns home with news of a big strike but the deserted Julie will have nothing to do with him. His friend Killian will not believe him but Haver, now a banker gives him a small loan and then beats him out of his claim. Many years pass before he comes home, now sixty-years-old, and this time, his wife and son open their home to him. But he vows to go prospecting come next spring.
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Kraft Television Theatre: Alice in Wonderland
Title: Kraft Television Theatre: Alice in Wonderland
Character: The Mock Turtle
Released: May 5, 1954
Type: Movie
Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, join Alice on her adventure in Wonderland.
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Title: Letter to Loretta
Character: Ernie Clevenger
Released: September 20, 1953
Type: TV
Letter to Loretta is an American anthology drama series telecast on NBC from September 1953 to June 1961 for a total of 165 episodes. The filmed show was hosted by Loretta Young who also played the lead in various episodes. Letter to Loretta was sponsored by Procter & Gamble from 1953 through 1960. The final season's sponsor was Warner-Lambert's Listerine.
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Golden Girl
Title: Golden Girl
Character: John Crabtree
Released: November 1, 1951
Type: Movie
Against the background of the Civil War, sixteen-year-old song-and-dance artiste Lotta Crabtree works her way across America, becoming ever more popular.
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Here Comes the Groom
Title: Here Comes the Groom
Character: William 'Pa' Jones
Released: September 20, 1951
Type: Movie
Foreign correspondent Pete Garvey has 5 days to win back his former fiancée, or he'll lose the orphans he adopted.
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The Scarf
Title: The Scarf
Character: Ezra Thompson
Released: April 6, 1951
Type: Movie
A man who is believed to have murdered a woman, escapes from the insane asylum to find if he was the one to actually kill her using the scarf she was wearing.
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Title: Lux Video Theatre
Character: The Stranger
Released: October 2, 1950
Type: TV
Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.
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Title: Lux Video Theatre
Character: Uncle Ed
Released: October 2, 1950
Type: TV
Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.
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Title: Lux Video Theatre
Character: Waters
Released: October 2, 1950
Type: TV
Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.
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The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
Title: The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
Character: Dennis O'Grady
Released: April 29, 1950
Type: Movie
An Irish horsecar driver's daughter meets New York showman Tony Pastor and goes into vaudeville.
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Wabash Avenue
Title: Wabash Avenue
Character: Harrigan
Released: March 31, 1950
Type: Movie
Andy Clark discovers he was cheated out of a half interest in partner Mike's business, now a thriving dance hall in 1892 Chicago. Unable to win it back, Andy schemes to make Mike's position untenable. He also hopes to turn Ruby Summers, Mike's motor-mouthed burlesque queen, into a classier entertainer, and incidentally to make her his own. But at the last minute, Andy's revenge comes unravelled.
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Yellow Sky
Title: Yellow Sky
Character: Grandpa
Released: December 24, 1948
Type: Movie
In 1867, a gang led by James "Stretch" Dawson robs a bank and flees into the desert. Out of water, the outlaws come upon a ghost town called Yellow Sky and its only residents, a hostile young woman named Mike and her grandpa. The story is a Western adaptation of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest".
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Title: Studio One
Character: Joe Tinker
Released: November 7, 1948
Type: TV
An American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. Studio One, presented by Westinghouse, was one of the first of the anthology TV programs. The episodes were often abridged remakes of movies from years gone by and many future well-known television and movie actors appeared in the productions.
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The Time of Your Life
Title: The Time of Your Life
Character: Kit Carson
Released: September 3, 1948
Type: Movie
Joe spends a lot of his time at Nick's Pacific Street Saloon. Tom, who credits Joe with once saving his life, stops by regularly to run errands for Joe. Today, Tom notices a woman named Kitty when she comes into Nick's, and he quickly falls in love with her. Meanwhile, a distraught young man repeatedly calls his girlfriend, begging her to marry him. Nick himself muses on all the various persons who come into his bar, some to ask for work and others just to pass the time.
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Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self - Sketch Actor
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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Title: The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self
Released: June 20, 1948
Type: TV
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
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The Shepherd of the Hills
Title: The Shepherd of the Hills
Character: Old Matt Matthews
Released: July 18, 1941
Type: Movie
Young Matt Matthews, an Ozark Mountains moonshiner, hates the father he has never seen, who apparently deserted Matt's mother and left her to die. His obsession contributes to the hatred rampant in the mountains. However, the arrival of a stranger, Daniel Howitt, begins to positively affect the mountain people, who learn to shed their hatred under his gentle influence.
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Hideaway Girl
Title: Hideaway Girl
Character: Motorcycle Policeman
Released: November 20, 1936
Type: Movie
An unfortunate marriage and a bogus Count are the ingredients for this musical.
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Back to Nature
Title: Back to Nature
Character: Motorcycle Officer
Released: August 14, 1936
Type: Movie
The Jones family goes to a convention traveling in a trailer. The oldest daughter gets involved with a convict, the oldest son has a love affair, and the youngest son gets into photography.
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His Family Tree
Title: His Family Tree
Character: Patrick Murphy
Released: September 29, 1935
Type: Movie
A father leaves his native Ireland and travels to America to visit the son he hasn't heard from in many years.
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Captain Hurricane
Title: Captain Hurricane
Character: Capt. Zenas Henry Brewster
Released: March 1, 1935
Type: Movie
Zenas Brewster is a seafaring man with a bad reputation. Notorious for his tempestuous nature, Brewster has earned the nickname of "Captain Hurricane." Brewster is smitten with neighbor Abbie Howland, but she doesn't like his temperament. After a period of retirement, a bad investment puts Brewster back at work on the sea. And when fire overtakes his ship, Hurricane proves heroic, selflessly rescuing his crew from a grisly and deadly fate.
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Helldorado
Title: Helldorado
Character: Motorcycle Cop
Released: January 5, 1935
Type: Movie
Arthur T. Ryan, a hitchhiker, gets a ride from haughty, society girl Glenda Wynant and her fiance, wealthy J. F. Van Avery after he helps them to replace the top of their convertible when it begins to rain. As they approach a bridge, Art notices a few stalled cars, and when the storm worsens, the bridge washes away, leaving Art, Glenda, Van and several others stranded in a canyon.