Roy Barcroft

Roy Barcroft (born Howard Harold Ravenscroft; September 7, 1902 – November 28, 1969) was an American character actor famous for playing villains in B-Westerns and other genres. From 1937 to 1957, he appeared in more than 300 films for Republic Pictures. Film critic Leonard Maltin acclaimed Barcroft as "Republic Pictures' number one bad guy".

Background Barcroft was born to a farming family in Crab Orchard, Nebraska, in 1902. In 1917, at the age of 15, he joined the United States Army during World War I to fight in France, where he was wounded in action. After leaving the military, he drifted through several jobs (including ranch hand, roughneck, railroad worker and seaman) before reenlisting and being stationed in Hawaii.

After leaving the Army for the second time, he played clarinet and saxophone for dance bands around Chicago until he and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1929.

Career In 1929, he moved to California and worked as an extra and as a salesman. He was discovered while acting in an amateur theatre production, a hobby which he took up to improve his speaking voice as a salesman. He appeared in the film serials Flash Gordon (1936), The President's Mystery (1936), and S.O.S. Coast Guard.

Death Barcroft died of kidney cancer at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in 1969. His body was donated to medical science.

Selected filmography

The Frontiersmen (1938) Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938, Serial) - Martian Soldier [Ch. 2] (uncredited) Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940, Serial) - Ming's Soldier [Ch 6, 10–12] / Arborian Sentry [Ch 6] (uncredited) Man from Texas (1939) Crashing Thru (1939) Trailing Double Trouble (1940) The Bandit Trail (1941) The Lone Rider in Cheyenne (1942) Hoppy Serves a Writ (1943) Canyon City (1943) Sheriff of Sundown (1944) Call of the South Seas (1944) Girls of the Big House (1945) Along the Navajo Trail (1945) The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) Sunset in El Dorado (1945) Oregon Trail Scouts (1947) Vigilantes of Boomtown (1947) The Wild Frontier (1947) Wyoming (1947) The Bold Frontiersman (1948) The Far Frontier (1948) Oklahoma Badlands (1948) Renegades of Sonora (1948) Train to Alcatraz (1948) Frontier Investigator (1949) The Dakota Kid (1951) Radar Men from the Moon (1953; Commando Cody/Rocketman series) Down Laredo Way (1953) Man Without a Star (1955) Oklahoma! (1955) The Spoilers (1955) Band of Angels (1957) as Gillespie Gunsmoke (Episode "SKY", 1959) - Ma Torvet Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) Texas Across the River (1966) Bandolero! (1968) Monte Walsh (1970)

Television 1963 Andy Griffith Show Clint Biggers Episode 30 season 3, Dogs,Dogs,Dogs. He owned the 11 dogs.1961 Rawhide Casey S4:E4, "Judgement at Hondo Seco"1962 Gunsmoke Cotter S8:E19, "Cotter's Girl"1963 Rawhide Sanders S5:E18, "Incident of the Mountain Man"1963 Rawhide Cliff Stanton S5:E30, "Incident at Alkali Sink"1963 Rawhide Sheriff S6:E10, "Incident at Confidence Creek"1965 Rawhide Adams S8:E4, "Walk into Terror"