Emerging from a New York City upbringing, he studied violin and voice as a child and earned a scholarship to the Chatham Square School of Music before adopting the stage name Gene Barry in tribute to John Barrymore. After a Broadway debut in a 1942 revival of The New Moon, he entered film with leading roles in The Atomic City (1952) and the science-fiction classic The War of the Worlds (1953), lat…
