Gene Barry

Assured, dapper leading man and singer who, after playing in a mixed bag of Hollywood films of the 1950s, found a niche as debonair man-about-town in several TV series, and later had success onstage. A native New Yorker, Barry made it to Broadway in the 40s in plays including "Rosalinda" and Mae West's "Catherine Was Great." He signed with Paramount in the early 50s to play in "The Atomic City" (1952), as a scientist whose son is kidnapped by powers hoping to acquire a nuclear bomb recipe. Barry stayed with Paramount for two years, playing the stalwart lead in one of his best-remembered films, "The War of the Worlds" (1953). He did especially well strutting his stuff in the offbeat, underrated Western musical, "Red Garters" (1954).