About Bernard Barrow
Lived 1927 – 1993 (aged 65). Bernard Barrow was an American actor, television actor, film actor and theatre director.
Bernard Elliott "Bernie" Barrow (December 30, 1927 – August 4, 1993) was an American actor and collegiate drama professor. He was best known as an actor for his roles as Johnny Ryan, an Irish-American patriarch, on Ryan's Hope (1975 to 1989) and Louie Slavinsky, a kindhearted garbage collector, on Loving (1989 to 1993). He won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 1991 for his role on Loving.
Early life Barrow was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in New York City and raised in Yorkville, a neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. His father ran a laundry and his mother also worked there. Barrow had two sisters.
Paul Newman was one of Barrow's classmates at Yale and they appeared together in a student production of Pirandello's Tonight We Improvise. Barrow had the lead role, while Newman played a cadet. Later, when Newman needed an audition scene for the Actors Studio, he used Barrow's big scene from the play. One of Barrow's students was Dominic Chianese, who later starred on The Sopranos. He also taught Jimmy Smits and director Joel Zwick.
Barrow appeared Off-Broadway as Jonah Goodman in The Gentle People, a play by Irwin Shaw, in 1946. He was only nineteen at the time and the character was in his fifties. In 1955, at the age of twenty-eight, he once again played a much older man in a production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. That same year, he played Joanne Woodward's principal in Rachel, Rachel, directed by his former classmate, Paul Newman.
He was cast as Earl Dana on the CBS soap opera Where the Heart Is, playing the role from 1969 to 1970. This was followed by another CBS soap opera, The Secret Storm, where Barrow played Dan Kincaid from 1970 to 1974. He also appeared in the film Claudine. He was nominated again in the same category in 1992.
In 1992, he starred in a stage production of Barefoot in the Park at the Valley Forge and Westbury Music Fair. He co-starred with fellow soap opera actors Marilyn Chris, Cady McClain, and Walt Willey. He had two children from a previous marriage and two stepchildren.
Death Barrow continued to work on Loving even after his diagnosis with lung cancer. He died from the disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, at the age of 65.
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Notes1968 Rachel, Rachel Leighton Siddley 1972 Glass Houses Victor 1973 Serpico Inspector Roy Palmer 1974 Claudine Mr. Winograd 1980 Jane Austen in Manhattan Mr. Polson 1983 The Survivors TV station manager 1985 Invasion U.S.A. Supermarket Manager 1987 Sweet Lorraine Mr. Rosenfeld
Television
Awards and nominations
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Ryan's Hope
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Ryan's Hope
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Loving
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Loving
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Important facts
Family & relationships
People in Bernard Barrow's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Bernard Barrow's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Bernard Barrow?
American actor (1927-1993)
When was Bernard Barrow born?
Bernard Barrow was born on 30 December 1927 in New York City.
When did Bernard Barrow die?
Bernard Barrow died on 4 August 1993 in New York City.
What was Bernard Barrow's occupation?
Bernard Barrow was an actor, television actor, film actor and theatre director.
What nationality was Bernard Barrow?
Bernard Barrow was American.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Bernard Barrow. https://biography.guide/bernard-barrow/
MLA: "Bernard Barrow." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/bernard-barrow/.
Chicago: "Bernard Barrow." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/bernard-barrow/.
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