Barry Orton

Early life Randal Berry Orton was born in Amarillo, Texas, to professional wrestler Bob Orton and his wife Rita. He was named after professional wrestler Wild Red Berry. The family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, three days after his birth. He was a musician and performed in nightclubs, playing in many prominent club bands over the country. Disappointed by a "near miss" record deal in 1976, Orton switched to professional wrestling.

Professional wrestling career Orton made his professional wrestling debut in 1976, trained by Bob Orton, Bob Roop, and Tully Blanchard. During his career in wrestling he competed in the WWF as Barry O (1985–1988, 1990–1991), ICW, WOW, the NWA, the IWF and Stampede Wrestling (where, while appearing as the masked Zodiac, he managed Jason the Terrible) he was mainly used as an enhancement talent. In 1984, Orton wrestled for around three months under a mask as the Assassin #3 with Jody Hamilton. Orton was a replacement for Hercules Hernandez, who had recently been unmasked by Jimmy Valiant. In a 2005 interview with Slam! Sports, Orton said "I was always struggling because I wanted to be a musician. I never saw myself as a professional wrestler."

His career was affected in 1986 when he was driving under the influence and his female passenger died. The WWF would not allow him to wrestle until the matter was settled, and Orton went to Stampede Wrestling in Calgary as the masked Zodiac.

Sexual harassment lawsuit In 1992, Orton appeared on the talk show, The Phil Donahue Show, along with Superstar Billy Graham, Bruno Sammartino and others to voice their concern about sexual harassment in the wrestling industry. Vince McMahon was also on the show to defend himself and the company. Because of Orton's vocal opinions against the WWF and the sexual harassment that was involved, he became blacklisted. Some were instructed not to talk to him, while many others were afraid to. Orton started going by a different name, Barrymore Barlow. Although he was not employed by the WWF at the time, he was a key figure in the lawsuit that was filed against the company. According to Orton, in 1978 on a trip between shows while employed by a faction of the NWA, Orton was traveling with a booker for the company, Terry Garvin. While on the drive, Garvin repeatedly asked to perform oral sex on him, offers that were repeatedly refused. At the time Orton did not speak up about the incident. However, when stories later broke that Garvin (who went on to work for the WWF front office) was involved in sexually harassing young ring boys working for the WWF, Orton came forward with his own story to back up the claims made against Garvin. Orton also brought up hearing from another ring boy while he was still employed by the WWF. According to Orton, the boy claimed that Garvin was doing things to make the boy uncomfortable.

Death On March 19, 2021, Orton died in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 62.

Championships and accomplishments Cauliflower Alley Club Family Award (2005) – with Bob Orton and Bob Orton Jr. International Championship Wrestling ICW Southeastern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bob Orton Jr. Interwest Wrestling Federation IWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Hollywood Wrestling NWA Americas Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Héctor Guerrero World Organized Wrestling WOW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)