Barry Atwater
Garrett "G.B." Atwater (born May 16, 1918, Denver, Colorado - died May 24, 1978, Los Angeles, California) was an American character actor who appeared frequently on TV from the 1950s into the 1970s. He appeared on Twilight Zone (1960); Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1965); Mission:Impossible (1966); Hawaii Five-0 (1970); Kung Fu (1974); and The Rockford Files (1977).
Career
The son of a renowned landscape painter of the same name, Garrett Atwater served as head of the UCLA Sound Department before he began his acting career. His work teaching audio techniques led to a role in the student film A Time Out of War, a Civil War allegory that won the Oscar as best short film of 1954. He began appearing often in TV episodes, often as a primary guest star, even playing the title characters on episodes of such shows as The Millionaire, Meet McGraw, The Court of Last Resort, One Step Beyond (as Abraham Lincoln), and Cheyenne (as George Custer). By 1960 he had achieved enough stature to be named by host Rod Serling in the on-screen promo as one of the stars of the well-known Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." This flourishing period of TV appearances coincided with some major supporting roles in low-budget movies; otherwise, film was an only occasionally fertile medium for him. Atwater also performed regularly on stage throughout his career.
In the middle-60s Atwater spent three years on the soap opera General Hospital while also working in prime-time appearances, billing himself as "G.B." Atwater from 1963 to 1965, during a period in which he (like many other actors who had thrived on 1950s anthology shows) was cast in supporting parts. By the late 60s and early 70s, however, "Barry" Atwater was again scoring primary guest-star roles, particularly on fantasy and sci-fi series—including The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Night Gallery, and Kung Fu—where his altered facial appearance (see photos, above) suited his grim and sinister countenance. By the mid-70s he was relegated to featured TV parts and small bits in movies, and he returned to UCLA to teach TV and film sound production.
Sci-fi legacy
Atwater’s role as vampire Janos Skorzeny (pictured, far right) in the acclaimed TV thriller The Night Stalker (1972) made him a popular guest at 1970s fan gatherings that capitalized on the resurgence of classic horror during that decade. Had he lived a little longer, his role as Surak in the original Star Trek series (pictured, right) would have made him an even bigger attraction at the sci-fi conventions that were just taking off at the time of his death. As the iconic father of Vulcan philosophy, Atwater was one of the few actors to portray a character from Mr. Spock's planet on the original TV show; his ability to convey superior confidence without betraying the species' well-known emotionless aspect has made him a posthumous fan favorite, though the episode ("The Savage Curtain"), with its portrayals of various real and fictional historic figures, including Abraham Lincoln, is not. (Famously, Atwater couldn't achieve the Vulcan salute naturally, so when he bids farewell in a medium shot, he has to first lower his arm so his hand is out of camera view as he pushes his fingers against his body to configure them properly.[1])
Steroid use and death
Atwater's health history has been subject to much speculation. Early in his career, he used steroids heavily to add bulk to his six-foot-one-inch frame. Suffering from terminal cancer at the time of his death in 1978, he died at the age of 60 from a stroke. At least two sources who were close to the actor believe the dramatic changes in his facial structure that started in the mid-1960s also resulted from steroid overuse, which is known to cause acromegaly. [citation needed] The bridge of his nose widened, his brow became very prominent (causing his eyes to appear more sunken), and his jaw line started to weaken. He appears to have also undergone extensive and intentional plastic surgery that included a facelift, eyelid surgery, and at least two dramatic rhinoplasties. [citation needed] His final TV role was as a gun fence in one scene on The Rockford Files in 1977, with Atwater's character "Roach" interviewed by star James Garner in closeup while feeding pigeons from a park bench.
References
- ^ Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 39, Episodes 77 & 78: The Savage Curtain/All Our Yesterdays (1966), CBS Paramount Home Video liner notes