By Remy Haynes

You’ll recognize Raymond Barry right away from his successful acting career but he’s much more than just an actor. He’s proud to have been in the mix with the likes of Tom Cruise, Susan Sarandon, Oliver Stone, and other megawatt stars for over 40 years. You’ll find him usually playing ‘the heavy,’ winning a Peabody for his work on the TV show ‘Justified,’ but when you meet Ray, he’s nothing like his darker characters. Jovial, hospitable, and sassy, Ray is ever grateful for a long, successful life doing his art. In the years since studying at Yale Drama School, Ray added a few other skills to his resume including playwright, author, director, sculptor, husband, painter, and father.

“I’m 84 years old. That’s quite provocative to think about it, isn’t it?” He smiles with that toothy grin and lets out a big guffaw. “My mother was a paradigm for how to live one’s life,” he tells me. “The most important thing is not money but beauty and love. Be attached to something that expresses beauty. I believe that. It’s my religion.” Raised by an alcoholic father and a creative mother, his interest in art started early. Painting in the kitchen with his mom, seeing Marlon Brando films on the big screen and learning to sculpt from his grandfather, presented a solace for Ray. With an explosive and non-supportive father Ray gravitated to his mom who taught him the miracle of creativity, the value of beauty, and the importance of self-expression. “She would act out scenes in the kitchen and I would be her audience. Her skill as a performer was so obvious, while imitating Betty Davis or Ann Baxter in ‘All about Eve’ or Vivien Leigh in ‘Streetcar Named Desire’.”

Like his mom, Ray never formally studied painting, but it has remained a constant companion throughout his life. Studying philosophy at Brown University, on a full football scholarship, Ray had the opportunity to escape a troubled childhood and build a life of his own. “I was always athletic, and it was my out. I was so relieved.” Ray also ran track, being ranked the 9th fastest in the country and won the New York state high jumping championship. He had a big decision to make, when at 21 years old, he was offered a spot with the Green Bay Packers and got accepted to Yale Drama School in the same week. Ray chose art.

Fast forward seven years and Ray found himself working with legendary companies like the Living Theatre and Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theatre, where he toured around the world. Doing live theatre gave Ray a respect for literature and story and a crash course in remembering your lines. “With a play, you can’t paraphrase,” Ray explains. “Actors paraphrase a lot in movies. I think you must respect the writer’s talent.”  Ray went on to perform in more than eighty productions in New York, from Broadway to Off Broadway, including musicals before coming to LA in the 80’s to start his acting career at 44 years old.

His heart wrenching scene in Oliver Stone’s, Born on the Fourth of July, initially got him noticed in Hollywood. Hard work and a strong background in stage work helped him stay a working actor. Within two years, he was a viable and successful actor in Los Angeles. “I paid my dues man. I worked hard,” Ray says. Fifty or so movies later, Ray was known for taking dark and disturbing subject matter and chalking it full of thought, sharpness, and wit. Described as richly entertaining and full of imagination, Ray was able to channel some of those hard childhood memories, into a successful career.

“I remember seeing Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift on the big screen, when I was a painfully shy 11–12-year-old boy and wanting to be like them. I identified with that sensitive, male image, so inept to the ways of the world. It never dawned on me that these two brilliant actors had studied the craft of acting, that acting skill could be learned. I had no idea that I would become a professional actor someday.”

Today you’ll most likely find Raymond at his art studio in Hollywood, where he’s been painting almost every day for over 30 years. For sometimes more than eight hours a day, Raymond works with his oil paints to create mostly large-scale art. Each taking over a month to create, one must ask if this is dedication to craft or mental escape? A bit of both perhaps. His most recent obsession, the shape of a women’s bodies and the intoxicating beauty of butterflies all intertwined like a strand of DNA. If you look at them long enough, you’ll find a handwritten phrase or word that stands out. Each time you gaze at these saturated works you’ll find something new. “I grew up in a war zone. This brings me such peace.” It’s not hard to see that his paintings reflect his joy for life.

I asked Ray if his acting informed his paintings or vice versa and he frankly says, no. “The ability to paint was always there, a separate thing I did,” he said. Through his successes and more importantly through times of doubt, sadness, and stress he always had his painting to escape through. “I had a talent for it, and it got me through a lot. I highly recommend having a creative outlet. It’s saved me.” While rehearsing for over a year before he produced his play, ‘Once in Doubt’ with actor Jack Black, Raymond always made time for his art, including sculpture, daily journaling and writing a memoir called, ‘Never A Viable Alternative.’

“It’s a privilege to be creative, to spend time expressing some voice that you have about your existence. Working for a company will not give that same kind of fulfillment. I didn’t want to live that way. That was the way my father lived. I want to be excited about my life. In 6 years, I’ll be 90 and I’m still excited. “Taking up acting at age 61, Ray witnessed his mother having a newfound spark. “Theater stimulated her creative juices, rejuvenated her sense of purpose, and ultimately liberated her. Performing strengthened her will to live, well into her nineties.”  Ray laughs and explains that he encouraged his mom to take up acting and was delighted when she got the part as David Letterman’s mom on TV. “She got a kick out of that role,” says Ray. 

Reflecting on a life well lived, Ray isn’t slowing down anytime soon because, as he’ll explain, he’s got one more kid to put through college. Oona is 14 and will need a full ride like his other three children. “If I could give any advice, it would be to do what you love for a living. Don’t hide behind a 9-5 job. Do what you love and watch what happens. It may not be easy but God damnit you only have one life. Don’t compromise that. It’s so important. You only have this one period of time that you exist as a human being. You have control over your life. Do what you love.”