Harry Barris (November 24, 1905 – December 13, 1962) was an American popular singer and songwriter.
Born in New York City, he was a member of the Rhythm Boys, a late 1920s singing trio which included Al Rinker and Bing Crosby, and was Crosby's entry into show business. The group sang several songs in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra film King of Jazz (1930) and recorded both with Whiteman and on their own with Barris on piano.
Barris appeared in 57 films between 1931 and 1950, usually as a band member, pianist and/or singer. In The Lost Weekend (1945), he is the nightclub pianist who humiliates Ray Milland by singing "Somebody Stole My Purse". An unusual change of pace for Barris was his comedy role in The Fleet's In (1942), as a runty sailor named Pee Wee who perpetrates malapropisms in a surprisingly deep voice.
Offscreen, Barris successfully composed songs including "Mississippi Mud", "I Surrender, Dear", "It Must Be True" and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams". Rinker and Crosby also carved out careers on their own as well.
Barris was the uncle of game show host and producer Chuck Barris. Chuck Barris was a co-creator and host of the The Gong Show.
Due to a lifelong drinking problem, he died in Burbank, California, aged 57.
Read more about Harry Barris: Selected Filmography, Sources
Famous quotes containing the word harry:
“It is now many years that men have resorted to the forest for fuel and the materials of the arts: the New Englander and the New Hollander, the Parisian and the Celt, the farmer and Robin Hood, Goody Blake and Harry Gill; in most parts of the world, the prince and the peasant, the scholar and the savage, equally require still a few sticks from the forest to warm them and cook their food. Neither could I do without them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)