Denise DuBarry obit

Denise DuBarry, Producer and 'Black Sheep Squadron' Actress, Dies at 63

She was not on the list.


She also appeared in 'Being There' and founded the annual Broken Glass Awards fundraiser for Palm Springs Women in Film and Television.

Denise DuBarry, an actress and producer who was president of Palm Springs Women in Film and Television, died Saturday at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after battling a deadly fungus, her husband told the Desert Sun newspaper. She was 63.

DuBarry appeared in Hal Ashby's Being There (1979), The Devil and Max Devlin (1981) and Monster in the Closet (1986); had a recurring role as nurse Samantha Greene Moore on Robert Conrad's Black Sheep Squadron; and showed up on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, CHiPs and The Love Boat.

A resident of La Quinta, DuBarry recently produced two films, Do It or Die (2017) and Walk to Vegas (2019), that screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

She served as president of Palm Springs Women in Film and Television, which was founded in 2001 to bringing more production work to the Coachella Valley, and created the Broken Glass Awards, the organization's annual fundraiser.

She co-founded Thane International Inc., a direct response industry company along with her husband, Bill Hay, in 1990. She served as its Chief Creative Officer for 15 years, from 1990–2005. She was a pioneer in the infomercial industry as co-producer with Deborah Chenoweth of Play the Piano Overnight in 1988, which won the Billboard Music Award for Best Music Instruction Video that year and then Play the Guitar Overnight which won the 1991 Billboard Music Award for Best Music Instruction.


At age 18, she went to work for her father in his paper export business, DuBarry International, and took acting lessons at night with Milton Katselas and Charles E. Conrad. She landed commercials for Michelob Beer, Chevrolet Camaro and worked as an extra in the kid's shows, Magic Mongo, Wonder Woman and she made an appearance on The Gong Show as beauty contestant, "Ms. Hold the Mayo". She competed in several real beauty contests including Ms. Malibu where she won "Most Photogenic". She was hired to co-star in a CBS Movie of the Week, Deadman's Curve. She landed a regular role in the second season of the NBC World War II television series, Black Sheep Squadron, and had bit-parts in popular television shows, including Charlie's Angels, Trapper John, M.D. and Match Game '78. Director Hal Ashby cast her in a featured role in the 1979 film Being There.

The native Texan was married to actor Gary Lockwood of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame from 1982 until their 1988 divorce.

In addition to her third husband, Billy Hay, survivors include her children Adam, Kyle, Whitney and Samantha, an actress; her parents, Pete and Betty; her sisters, Audrey, Diana and Suzanne; and two grandchildren.