Barry Bostwick

Tall leading man Barry Bostwick began his professional acting career while still a sophomore at the United States International University School of Performing Arts in San Diego; his first stage gig was opposite Walter Pidgeon in Take Her, She's Mine. Completing his training at the New York University Graduate School of the Arts, Bostwick made his Broadway bow in Cock-a-Doodle Dandy. He went on to play Danny Zuko in the smash-hit musical Grease, and in 1978 won a Tony Award for his work in The Robber Bridegroom. In films from 1971, Bostwick is best known for his calculatedly cloddish portrayal of Brad Majors in the midnight-movie perennial The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Equally enjoyable was his characterization of the aspiring songwriter ("It Just Shows to Go Ya") who agrees to write an entire Broadway musical in 24 hours in the 1979 spoof Movie, Movie. Barry Bostwick has also excelled on television, playing movie idol John Gilbert in Garson Kanin's The Silent Lovers (1980) and George Washington in two mid-'80s miniseries based on the life of the first U.S. president; he also starred on the weekly series Foul Play (1981) and Dads (1986).

by Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide