Barbara Colby

Barbara Colby

Barbara Colby (July 2, 1940 – July 24, 1975) was an American actress.

Biography

Colby was a tall, toothy, husky-voiced, frizzy-haired actress equipped with a keen, Brooklyn-tough sensibility and dead-on comedy instincts. Hollywood lost a wonderful personality that summer evening, someone who was proving to the TV masses that she was a definite contender.

Born Barbara Colby in New York City on July 2, 1940, and started her acting career in the theater. Following a solid performance in "Six Characters in Search of an Author" in 1964, she took to the Broadway lights with a debut in "The Devils" the following year. Throughout the rest of the decade, she impressed in such plays as "Under Milkwood", "Murder in the Cathedral" and "Dear Liar", and also garnered fine notices for her Portia in "Julius Caesar" in 1966.

Colby's first important television role was in an episode of the television series Columbo, titled 'Murder by the Book' in 1971. Marking that first prime TV role on a "Columbo" episode in 1971, Barbara began a bi-coastal career and played a host of support/guest roles on such established shows as "The Odd Couple", "McMillan and Wife", "The F.B.I.", "Medical Center", "Kung Fu" and "Gunsmoke".

Never giving up her love for the stage, Barbara continued to gain in strength in such quirky 70s plays as "Aubrey Beardsley the Neophyte", "House of Blue Leaves", "Afternoon Tea" and "The Hot L. Baltimore". She also returned to the classics with an off-Broadway role as Elizabeth in "Richard III," and was back on Broadway with the plays "Murderous Angels" in 1971 and a revival of "A Doll's House" in the early part of 1975.

But it was MTM Productions that took strongly to Barbara after she made an hilarious appearance as a worldly prostitute opposite an impossibly naive Mary Tyler Moore in a now-classic jail cell episode of the Moore comedy series. Producers were so impressed by Barbara's sharp, cynical edge and dead-pan timing that they brought her character back in a subsequent episode. She impressed the producers of The Mary Tyler Moore Show with a guest appearance as a wise-cracking prostitute and was invited to reprise her role in a later episode.

She then appeared again on Broadway in a revival of "A Doll's House" in early 1975. But, after the production closed she returned to Los Angeles for more screen work.

MTM had just cast her as the new regular player on the spin-off sitcom, starring actress Cloris Leachman who had played one of Mary's self-absorbed, scatterbrained friends to Emmy-winning effect. Barbara, who appeared earlier with Leachman in the TV-movie A Brand New Life (1973) (TV), was now in "second banana" position playing Cloris' boss, Julie Erskine, the owner of a commercial photography studio. The actress had officially paid her dues and broken into the top sitcom ranks.

With two films also in the can, California Split (1974) and Memory of Us (1974), Barbara seemed poised for bigger things.

And then by summer, on July 24, 1975, just weeks after her 35th birthday and only three episodes into the TV series, Barbara and an acting colleague, James Kiernan, were walking to their car following an acting class in Venice, California, when they were deliberately shot inside a parking area.

Colby and Kiernan were shot to death in Venice, California, while walking to their car following an acting class. Sadly, Barbara Colby was killed instantly of her gunshot wounds. However, Kiernan who had recently appeared in an episode of MTM's "Rhoda", was able to describe the shooting to police before he also he succumbed to his wounds.

Kiernan said that he did not recognize the two men who shot them, and that the shooting had occurred without warning, reason or provocation. Police noted that there was no attempt to rob the pair, and concluded that it was a random, drive-by shooting. The killers were never identified, and never caught. The deadly crime remains unsolved; a "cold case". James Kiernan was 35, and Barbara Colby died only 3 weeks after her 36th birthday.

Following the tragedy, comedienne Liz Torres came on board to replace Barbara in the Julie Erskine part. The role itself lasted for only one season before they changed the sitcom's setting in order to try and improve the lackluster ratings. It didn't help. Despite a Golden Globe win for Leachman, the show was canceled after only one more season. In retrospect, one can't tell whether Barbara might have made a difference in the sitcom's ratings or outcome. The fact remains that this inexplicably brutal act snuffed out the life of a star comedienne in the making.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1968	Petulia	Patient	Uncredited
1969	N.Y.P.D.	Lila	TV, 1 episode
1971	Columbo: Murder by the Book	Lilly La Sanka	Television movie
	The Odd Couple	Monique	TV, 1 episode
1972	Look Homeward, Angel	Miss Brown	Television movie
1973	The F.B.I.	Marti	TV, 1 episode
	McMillan and Wife	Linda Comsack	TV, 1 episode
	ABC After School Special		TV, 1 episode
1974	Judgement: The Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg		Television movie
	Medical Center	Mrs. Polumbo	TV, 1 episode
	Kung Fu	Josie	TV, 1 episode
	Memory of Us	Iris
	California Split	Receptionist
	Gunsmoke	Kathy Carter	TV, 1 episode
1974-1975	The Mary Tyler Moore Show	Sherry	TV, 2 episodes
1975	Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins		Alternative title: Rafferty and the Highway Hustlers
	Phyllis	Julie Erskine #1	TV,3 episodes
1976	The Ashes of Mrs. Reasoner		Television movie

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