A genial, well-respected, all-around "nice guy", the breezily handsome
Barry Nelson was born Robert Haakon Nielsen on April 16, 1917, in San
Francisco, California, of Scandinavian heritage. He was raised in nearby
Oakland and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in
1941. A talent scout from MGM caught Barry in a college production of
"Macbeth" and quickly sized up his potential. Cast in earnest secondary
roles including Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) and Dr. Kildare's Victory (1942), he was assigned the lead in the war film A Yank on the Burma Road (1942). Serving in WWII, he appeared in the Moss Hart play "Winged Victory", in what would become his Broadway debut,
in 1943 and a year later he appeared as "Corporal Barry Nelson" in the
1944 film version of the play. Barry lost major ground in films during
the post-war years, but certainly made up for it on the live stage by
appearing in a string of New York successes ranging from "The Rat Race"
to "The Moon Is Blue."Cliquez ici pour modifier.