Edgar Barrier

In his few major film appearances, American actor Edgar Barrier exuded a professorial air, which he frequently augmented by sporting a well-groomed beard. Barrier's best acting opportunities came via his association with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, both in its Broadway incarnation and its radio spinoff. Welles used Barrier to good advantage in his film productions of Journey Into Fear and MacBeth; in the latter picture, Barrier plays the unfortunate Banquo, whose materialization as a ghost is one of the film's highlights. Outside of the Welles orbit, Barrier worked steadily on radio, notably in the spooky confections of Lights Out maven Arch Oboler. In 1945, Barrier starred in the radio detective weekly The Saint. Many of Edgar Barrier's film roles were brief, and often uncredited (War of the Worlds [1953], On the Double [1961] etc.); his most memorable film appearance was as the mad sportsman Count Zaroff, enthusiastic hunter of human beings, in A Game of Death (1945).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide