Barry Coe obit

R.I.P. Barry Coe, who was briefly the fifth Cartwright on 'Bonanza'

The 'Follow the Sun' and 'Peyton Place' actor died at 84.

He was not on the list.


In the fall of 1962, Bonanza was entering its fourth season as the No. 2 show on the tube. But not everyone was happy on the Ponderosa. Pernell Roberts, who portrayed the suave and sophisticated elder Cartwright son, Adam, was an actor reared on the classics. His career began on the stage, with a steady diet of Shakespearean roles both off-Broadway and on Broadway. He was a man who had won an award for starring in Macbeth, and he was thrust into a popular family television drama.

Bonanza producers sought a replacement for Roberts.
Enter Barry Coe, a devastatingly handsome Southern California native who had nabbed a Golden Globe Award in 1960 for "Most Promising Newcomer - Male." He had just wrapped up a series of his own, ABC's Follow the Sun, a Hawaii-set series from creator Roy Huggins, the brilliant mind behind Maverick, The Fugitive and The Rockford Files. Prior to that, he had a role in the 1957 film Peyton Place as Rodney Harrington. (Ryan O'Neal would portray the character in the popular television adaptation.)


Well-tanned with a trim mustache, Coe was written onto Bonanza with the episode "The First Born."

Coe played Clay Stafford, a newcomer who joins the Ponderosa as a worker. Not long after, he's in hot water, having killed a man in self-defense. Angry miners want to run Stafford out of town, which is about when he reveals to Little Joe that they are half-brothers, both born of Marie. Little Joe, having taken to his new friend and supposed half-brother, sticks up for him.

That was how Clay's life on the Ponderosa was set to begin. However, behind the scenes, Michael Landon, the rising star behind Little Joe, was reportedly worried that this fresh hire would eat into his screentime. Thus, Clay's stay turned out to last one single episode.

Coe would later land small roles on Mission: Impossible and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. His final role was Jaws 2.

For 60 years, Coe was married to Jorunn Kristiansen Coe, a painter who was voted Miss Norway 1959. Coe died at the age of 84, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Filmography

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1955      House of Bamboo            Captain Hanson's Aide   Uncredited

1955      How to Be Very, Very Popular     Student                Uncredited

1956      On the Threshold of Space           Communications Officer               

1956      D-Day the Sixth of June Helmsman           Uncredited

1956      Love Me Tender                Mr. Davis            

1957      Peyton Place      Rodney Harrington         

1958      Thundering Jets                Capt. 'Cotton' Davis        

1958      The Bravados     Tom      

1959      A Private's Affair               Jerry Morgan    

1959      But Not for Me Gordon Reynolds            

1960      One Foot in Hell                Stu Christian      

1960      The Wizard of Baghdad Prince Husan     

1962      The 300 Spartans             Phylon

1965      A Letter to Nancy             Pastor Bob Allen              

1966      The Cat                 Walt Kilby           

1966      Fantastic Voyage              Communications Aide   

1971      The Seven Minutes         Court Clerk          Uncredited

1972      One Minute Before Death            Joseph Hudson

1973      Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls     Fred Saunders  

1976      El hombre desnudo                        

1977      MacArthur          Television Reporter        

1978      Jaws 2   Andrews              (final film role)