Barbara Colby

At age 36, actress Barbara Colby was on the verge of TV-character stardom when the native New Yorker was shot and killed one evening on the streets of Los Angeles. The tall, toothy, husky-voiced, frizzy-haired actress, known for her keen, Brooklyn-tough sensibility and dead-on comedy instincts, had just begun to make a name for herself on the West Coast when tragedy struck. Hollywood lost a promising personality and talent that summer evening, someone who was proving to the TV audience that she was a contender. Though born in New York City in 1939, Barbara was raised predominantly in New Orleans, where her interest in acting developed while attending high school. After graduating in 1957, she received a scholarship to Bard College on the Hudson in New York, followed by a single semester at the Paris Sorbonne University in France. While she pursued a professional career on the New York stage, she also began to explore spiritual interests. In contrast to her tough, streetwise exterior, the gentle, deep-feeling woman actively pursued a metaphysical lifestyle. She avoided alcohol, was a strict vegetarian, and meditated regularly as a devoted follower of the Indian Hindu guru Swami Muktananda. She also believed in reincarnation. Following a solid stage performance in "Six Characters in Search of an Author" in 1964, Barbara made her Broadway debut in "The Devils" the following year. Throughout the rest of the decade, she impressed in such plays as "Under Milk Wood," "Murder in the Cathedral," and "Dear Liar," and also received favorable notices for her Portia in "Julius Caesar" in 1966 at the American Shakespeare Theatre Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. Marking her first major TV role in an episode of *Columbo* in 1971, Barbara began a bi-coastal career and played a variety of supporting and guest roles on established shows such as *The Odd Couple* (1968), *McMillan & Wife* (1971), *The F.B.I.* (1965), *Medical Center* (1969), *Kung Fu* (1972), and *Gunsmoke* (1955). It was MTM Productions that strongly embraced Barbara after she made a hilarious appearance as a worldly prostitute, Sherry, opposite an impossibly naive Mary Tyler Moore in a now-classic 1974 jail-cell episode of the Moore comedy series. Producers were so impressed by Barbara's dead-pan comic timing and appealingly sharp, cynical edge that they brought her character back in a subsequent episode. Never giving up her love for the stage, Barbara continued to gain 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" starring Liv Ullmann in early 1975. Following the close of the latter show, Barbara returned to Los Angeles with a career-making offer. MTM had just cast her as a regular player on a spin-off from *The Mary Tyler Moore Show* (1970). The new sitcom, *Phyllis* (1975), starred actress Cloris Leachman, who had played one of Mary's self-absorbed, scatterbrained friends to Emmy-winning effect. Barbara, who had previously appeared with Leachman in the TV movie *A Brand New Life* (1973), was now in a "second banana" role 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 *The Memory of Us* (1974), Barbara seemed poised for bigger things. On July 24, 1975, just weeks after her 36th birthday and only three episodes into the TV series, Barbara and her acting colleague and boyfriend, James Kiernan, were walking to their car following the teaching of an acting class in Venice, California, when they were deliberately shot by two gang members inside a parking garage area. Barbara, who was estranged at the time from Robert Levitt Jr., the son of legendary entertainer Ethel Merman, died instantly from a single gunshot wound; Mr. Kiernan, who had recently appeared in an episode of MTM's "Rhoda," was able to describe the shooting to police before he succumbed but could not recognize the two men who shot them, noting that the shooting had occurred without warning, reason, or provocation. Police noted that there was no attempt to rob the pair and appeared to be a random act of violence. The killers were never caught, and the homicide remains a "cold case." Barbara was later cremated, and a memorial service was held at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon. She was survived by her mother and younger sister, Renee. 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 an attempt to 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 cannot determine whether Barbara