ROY BARCROFT
September 7th, 1902 -- November 28th, 1969

Above: The greatest serial villain of them all--Roy Barcroft, in a publicity portrait taken sometime during his illustrious career at Republic Pictures. He has on the suit and crafty look of the traditional "brains heavy" here.

William C. Cline called him "the spice of Republic serials." Alan G. Barbour called him "the king of villainy", and nearly every other serial fan recognizes him as the greatest Bad Guy ever to menace a cliffhanger's protagonists. I speak, of course, of Roy Barcroft. Roy was burly and thuggish-looking enough to portray "action heavies", or the henchmen of the main villain, but he also was adept at assuming a look of craftiness and guile that suited perfectly the part of "brains heavy", or boss villain. His serial roles were equally divided between the part of the boss or the henchman, and he excelled in both types. The really amazing thing about Roy is that he was loved and admired by all his co-workers; off-screen; he was jovial, kindly, and friendly, the complete opposite of all the nasty, evil villains he played on screen. What follows may sound like extravagant praise to some, but it would be difficult to find a serial fan that does not feel the same way about big bad Roy.

Above: Roy in "action heavy" garb this time, in this shot from one of his B-westerns.

Roy was born Harold Ravenscroft (he was of Nordic descent, judging by that name) in Nebraska. He served in World War One at the age of sixteen, and was wounded in action in France. He worked as a cowboy, sailor, "roughneck" (head driller on an oil well crew), and door-to-door salesman before entering films. It was the salesman job that got him into movies--the story is that he started taking dramatic lessons to overcome his bashfulness with customers, and wound up making a career of acting. His earliest parts were "military extra" roles in films like MATA HARI. His first serial was the tiny bit of a crewman on a pirate dirigible on DICK TRACY (Republic, 1937), and he followed it with another small villain part in SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937), as one of Bela Lugosi's henchmen. With the prolific villains like Barcroft, it's impossible to give a detailed account of their every serial role (they did so many) so I'll just have to list Roy's lesser parts from 1937 up to the early forties: He played a thug named Hollister in FLAMING FRONTIERS (Universal, 1938), had the role of a government agent in THE PHANTOM CREEPS (Universal, 1939), played another bit part in BUCK ROGERS (Universal, 1939), and appeared as General Custer, of all people, in THE OREGON TRAIL (Universal, 1939). The part of Custer was easily the meatiest of Roy's earlier roles, and he did a good job in it, complete with long hair and goatee. Roy then played a mine superintendent in DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (Republic, 1939), appeared as one of Ming the Merciless's soldiers in FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (Universal, 1940), was a minor thug named Logan in WINNERS OF THE WEST (Universal, 1940), popped up as a phony marshal in DEADWOOD DICK (Columbia, 1940), appeared as a cop in THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN (Universal, 1940), played a Coast Guard sailor in SKY RAIDERS (Universal, 1941), and played Dirk, one of Charles Bickford's henchmen, in RIDERS OF DEATH VALLEY (Universal, 1941). He also played two of his more noticeable early roles in 1941--as undercover detective Pendleton, who helped Buck Jones in the Columbia Western serial WHITE EAGLE, and as Ross, action heavy in Republic's KING OF THE TEXAS RANGERS until he got killed in Chapter Seven. His last "bit" roles before hitting it big as a villain were in VALLEY OF VANISHING MEN (Columbia, 1943), and THE MASKED MARVEL (Republic, 1943). In the first, he played a crooked deputy who hindered Bill Elliott's search for his missing father, and in the second, he was a devious diner manager who was in cahoots with the Japanese spy Sakima. MARVEL, by the way, was Barcroft's first serial after signing a "Term Player" contract with Republic; from henceforth, all his cliffhangers would be made there.

Above, from left to right: Johnny Mack Brown, Roy Barcroft, and Fuzzy Knight in THE OREGON TRAIL (Universal, 1939).

Above, from left to right: Raymond Hatton, Buck Jones, and Roy Barcroft in WHITE EAGLE (Columbia, 1941). Roy is also shown in the left hand border of the lobby card; Buck is in the bottom right hand corner.

Roy "hit it big" in the ranks of serial bad guys when he appeared in HAUNTED HARBOR (Republic, 1944). He was the brains heavy for the first time: an ex-convict named Carter now going under the alias of Kane, who concocts a clever plan to net himself a fortune in gold aboard a scuttled schooner. He goes to banker Voorhees (Edmund Keane) for backing, but when Voorhees attempts a double cross, Kane murders him and the death is blamed on Captain Jim Marsden (Kane Richmond), owner of the sunken schooner. Marsden, with the aid of Patricia Harding (Kay Aldridge), sets out to clear himself. They discover that Kane has sunk the schooner off of Haunted Island, and that he is using a fake sea monster to scare off curious natives while he salvages the gold and remelts it. A pretty good master plan, but Marsden manages to smash the evil scheme and Kane/Carter meets a grisly end in the process. Roy did a great job as the evil Carter; although his character seldom left his office, Barcroft decisively concocted all the devious schemes for his henchmen (Kenne Duncan and Bud Geary) to carry out, and very nearly succeeded in outwitting hero Kane Richmond. It was an excellent first serial for Roy, showcasing his craftiness and ruthlessness to good advantage. Both Republic and the avid audiences of serial fans realized that this was truly the start of something big.

Above: Roy Barcroft (right) is about to remove a threat to his schemes in HAUNTED HARBOR (Republic, 1944). The threat in question is Kenne Duncan, Roy's (up to now) faithful henchman.

Roy's next serial part was his personal favorite, and is probably his best remembered one. In MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND (Republic, 1945), Barcroft played Captain Mephisto, an apparently reincarnated18th century pirate who kidnapped a distinguished scientist (Forrest Taylor) and attempted to force him to develop a remote control machine that would enable Mephisto to dominate world industry and ultimately become ruler of the world. Mephisto was actually one of the four owners of Mystery Island, who had discovered a way to molecularly rearrange his body into the shape of the departed pirate, and it was up to criminologist Lance Reardon (Richard Bailey), and the scientist's daughter Claire Forrest (Linda Stirling) to find out which one is Mephisto and destroy the pirate's plans. Roy had a field day as Captain Mephisto, and completely stole the serial from the rest of the cast. It was certainly a unique role; if you stop to consider, Roy doesn't actually exist in the serial--he's merely a facade developed by the suspect owner; in effect, Barcroft was playing a disguise! He handled this one-of-a-kind part with relish; the scene where he explains the molecular transformation process to his henchman Kenne Duncan is really priceless. He matter-of-factly talks of shifting his molecules and corpuscles, and when the bewildered Duncan professes to understand what his boss is saying, Roy assumes his trademark evil grin and says "if I really thought you did, I'd kill you."

Above: Claire Forrest (Linda Stirling), enmeshed in a fish net, faces death by drowning unless she reveals the location of one of her father's inventions to Captain Mephisto (Roy Barcroft, right). Mephisto's henchman Brand (Kenne Duncan) stands ready in the background to submerge Linda if necessary. It's no wonder this part was Roy's favorite--Mephisto was the most colorful serial villain of all time. Look at that fantastic outfit!

Roy's second favorite part was the role of the Purple Monster in THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES (Republic, 1945). The Purple Monster was an alien from Mars, the vanguard of an invasion, who came to Earth in order to steal the rocket plans of Dr. Cyrus Layton (James Craven), since the Martians were unable to build a rocket that could make a round trip between Mars and the Earth. When Layton refuses to turn over his rocket plans to the Monster, the Martian kills him and uses a special vial of alien gas to dematerialize himself and enter the dead scientist's body. He avails himself of this disguise at various points throughout the serial, as he battles hero Craig Foster (Dennis Moore) and Layton's niece Sheila (Linda Stirling) and attempts to gather all the necessary equipment for the construction of Layton's rocket. Roy delivered another unique and eerie performance as the Purple Monster, assuming a cold, inhuman, semi-reptilian air that made the Monster seem like he really was from another planet. Barcroft enjoyed playing the part, but he really didn't enjoy the preparation for it, as he was required to lose over twenty pounds in order to fit into the tights worn by the Monster. He walked to work every day in order to lose his excess weight, and afterwards always referred to the serial by the title of "The Jerk in Tights from Boyle Heights."

Above: Roy Barcroft as the sinister Purple Monster in THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES (Republic, 1945).

Roy's next major serial role (he also played the minor part of a good (!) marshal in Republic's 1945 serial THE PHANTOM RIDER) was his first major action heavy one: Mel Donovan in DAUGHTER OF DON Q (Republic, 1946). As the henchman of supposedly respectable antique dealer LeRoy Mason, Barcroft did all the hard work (kidnappings, murders, and so forth) as part of his boss's scheme to get control of a valuable section of California land that had once belonged to 19th century landowner Don Quantaro. Mason, one of the heirs of Don Q, came into possession of a Spanish land grant that gave Don Q's descendants control of the above-mentioned valuable land, and, with the help of Donovan, set out to remove all of the Don's other heirs in order to inherit the property. However, Dolores Quantaro (Lorna Gray), one of the heirs, decides to investigate her relatives' deaths, and joins with reporter Cliff Roberts (Kirk Alyn) to find out the reason for the mysterious murders. The part of Donovan was another plum role for Roy; he even got to outlive head villain Mason and was killed in the serial's climax, while facing Alyn in an exciting shootout on a bridge.

Above: Roy Barcroft (far right) lurks behind Lorna Gray and Kirk Alyn in this lobby card for DAUGHTER OF DON Q (Republic, 1946).

Though appearing in many Republic B-westerns made at the same time as his serials, Roy hadn't done a Western serial since VALLEY OF VANISHING MEN, but in 1947, he lent his classic B-western badman characterization to Republic's entertaining cowboy cliffhanger, SON OF ZORRO. The serial dealt with Jeff Stewart (George Turner, a sadly underused actor in an excellent performance), a descendant of the original Zorro, and his efforts to rid Box County of corrupt administrators like Judge Knox (Ernie Adams), and Sheriff Moody (Ed Cassidy). Barcroft was Boyd, outlaw leader and chief henchmen to the corrupt politicians and their unknown boss. Barcroft's Boyd, though a henchman, was anything but subservient, frequently criticizing or openly questioning his superiors' orders, and more than once coming up with a clever scheme himself.

Above: Roy Barcroft as Boyd, the evil outlaw "action heavy" in Republic's SON OF ZORRO (Republic, 1947).

Next up was another Western outlaw part--the role of Frank Lawton in JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1947). Roy, as Lawton, demonstrated his versatility, making this badman a not-too-bright thug more reliant on brawn than brains, and frequently failing to comprehend the schemes of his sophisticated boss (Tristram Coffin). Coffin and Barcroft were after the huge deposits of oil that lay beneath the Tennessee farming community of Peaceful Valley, and nearly achieved their objective via a reign of violence and murder, but were stopped cold by Jesse James (Clayton Moore), who, seeking to go straight, made amends for his past misdeeds by defeating the pair of villains.

Above: Roy Barcroft (left) punches out Clayton Moore in JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1947).

Roy's next serial role is probably his best after his parts in MYSTERY ISLAND and PURPLE MONSTER, but it's also his least known. G-MEN NEVER FORGET (Republic, 1947), one of Republic's best but most underrated serials, featured Barcroft in a dual role--the part of upright police commissioner Angus Cameron and the role of gangland king Vic Murkland. Murkland, who has had plastic surgery to make himself look like the commissioner, kidnaps Cameron and takes his place, and is thus able to stay one step ahead of the good guys (G-man Clayton Moore and his assistant Ramsay Ames) as they attempt to track him down. Moore eventually realizes that the Commissioner is not what he seems to be, and tracks Murkland to his hideout, a sanitarium where Cameron is being held. In the ensuing fight, the villainous Barcroft knocks out Moore and is about to shoot him, when he is downed by a shot from--the good Barcroft! Roy did a brilliant job in the dual part, differentiating the good and evil characters from each other in various subtle ways. G-MEN was the only serial in which Roy got second billing; considering his memorable good guy performance and his equally memorable bad guy performance, he certainly deserved it.

Above: Roy Barcroft, Clayton Moore, and Ramsay Ames in a scene from G-MEN NEVER FORGET (Republic, 1947).

FEDERAL AGENTS VS. UNDERWORLD INC. (Republic, 1949) gave Barcroft a rematch against Kirk Alyn, his nemesis from DAUGHTER OF DON Q. As in DON Q, Roy was the action heavy, a gangster named Spade Gordon working with villainess Nila (Carol Forman) to steal the Golden Hands of Kurigal, which were the keys to a vast treasure hidden somewhere in Nila's home country of Abistahn. Alyn, as Federal Agent Dave Worth, crossed up Gordon and Nila at every turn, and kept them from achieving their goal of using the treasure to incorporate the underworld into one vast setup. As in SON OF ZORRO, Barcroft played a sarcastic, cagy henchman, always skeptical of the wisdom of Forman's orders and never hesitant to pass a cynical comment on them. FEDERAL AGENTS, with a good cast and an intricate, fascinating plot, was one of the very best of the later Republics, and another good serial for Roy.

Above: Kirk Alyn (second from left) and James Dale get the drop on Roy Barcroft as a henchman prepares to clobber them in FEDERAL AGENTS VS. UNDERWORLD INCORPORATED (Republic, 1949).

Barcroft was back in the badman saddle again that same year, in the Republic Western serial entitled GHOST OF ZORRO. Once again, Roy did his best to do in a descendant of Zorro, played by his old enemy from JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN and G-MEN NEVER FORGET, Clayton Moore. Roy and his boss, blacksmith Gene Roth, were out to stop the completion of a telegraph that would wreck their outlaw empire by providing the law with effective communication. Moore, as the foreman of the telegraph company, poses as a dude to throw off Barcroft and Roth, but dons the outfit of Zorro to wreck their plans and enable Rita White (Pamela Blake) to complete the telegraph line.

Above: Hank Kilgore (Roy Barcroft, center) and one of his henchmen (Eddie Parker, far left) are confronted by the masked hero Zorro (Clayton Moore) in this scene from GHOST OF ZORRO (Republic, 1949).

Roy was also a Western bad guy in JAMES BROTHERS OF MISSOURI (Republic, 1949). He played Ace Marlin, a crooked stage line owner who joined with villainous lady storekeeper Belle Calhoun (Patricia Knox) to take over the stage line of Lon Royer (John Hamilton) and establish a stage line empire. Barcroft bumps off Hamilton in the first chapter, but the bad guys reckon without Jesse James and his brother Frank (Keith Richards and Robert Bice) who step in to help Royer's daughter (Noel Neill) to keep her father's stage line running and bring Belle and Ace to justice. Also in 1949, Barcroft had a much smaller serial role, but one that needs to be mentioned in order to make this article comprehensive--he was the voice of a police radio dispatcher in RADAR PATROL VS. SPY KING.

DESPERADOES OF THE WEST (Republic, 1950) was Roy's last Western action heavy part in a serial. This time, he was an outlaw named Hacker, who was enlisted by Eastern slicker I. Stanford Jolley as part of his scheme to take over valuable ranch land by wrecking the oil well that the ranchers are drilling to pay off the mortgages on their property. Roy and Jolley (who was a good friend of Barcroft's offscreen) are opposed and eventually defeated by Ward Gordon (former top B-western star Tom Keene, who by this time was using the name of Richard Powers) and his sidekick Rusty (Lee Phelps). Once again, Barcroft was an unruly, rebellious henchman, threatening to back out of the whole plot any time Jolley's schemes went askew or Powers checkmated one of the gang's moves.

Above: Roy (right) takes a good punch from Richard Powers in this lobby card from DESPERADOES OF THE WEST (Republic, 1950).

The only Western serial in which Barcroft played the brains heavy was DON DAREDEVILS RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1951). And he did a great job too; he was cast as the wily politician Douglas Stratton, who managed to get an old Spanish land grant under which the settlers held their land declared a fake (actually, Barcroft's minions stole the original land grant and substituted a fake one) so he could take over their land. However, his plans were once again thwarted by a masked hero, (this time the masked crusader Don Daredevil), and he wound up being accidentally gunned down by his own men. Ken Curtis, another good friend of Roy's who later worked with him on TV's GUNSMOKE (Curtis played Festus on that show, believe it or not), played the heroic Don Daredevil and his alter ego Lee Hadley, and John Cason and Lane Bradford were Roy's henchmen Weber and Hagen. DON DAREDEVIL was one of the first serials I ever saw, and the first time I saw Barcroft in one of his classic villain roles, and his performance in it still stands as one of my favorites.

Above: Ken Curtis is engaging in a fierce tussle with Roy Barcroft (and appears to be getting the worst of it), in DON DAREDEVIL RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1951).

Barcroft did another voice-over job in 1951, this time as a Coast Guard dispatcher in Republic's GOVERNMENT AGENTS VS. PHANTOM LEGION. Then, in 1952, he played his last archvillain part in the 12-chapter RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON. Republic gave him another extremely colorful part to close his serial heavy career with-- he played Retik, the Emperor of the Moon, who was trying to soften up the Earth for an invasion with the help of his aide Krog (Peter Brocco) and Earth gangsters Clayton Moore and Bob Stevenson. The part was very similar to Roy's earlier Purple Monster characterization, and, appropriately, he wore a similar headpiece, but this time they let him eschew the tights of the Monster for more regal, flowing robes befitting a lunar emperor. His invasion plans met with no more success than they did in PURPLE MONSTER, and he wound up being blasted from the sky along with his rocketship by hero Commando Cody (George Wallace), who, using one of Roy's own lunar rayguns, brought a spectacular end to Barcroft's long career of Republic serial villainy.

Above: Roy Barcroft, as Retik, Emperor of the Moon, issues orders to his earthbound cohorts in this scene from RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON (Republic, 1952). The part of Retik was Roy's final master villain serial role at Republic.

Roy did one more serial job for Republic before his contract expired--he was the voice of an unseen Central Control radio official in ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE (Republic, 1952), as well as dubbing a few new lines of dialogue for actors Clifton Young and Norman Willis in order to fit old stock footage of the two performers into the new serial. He also played one more serial part at Republic the year after his contract expired. MAN WITH THE STEEL WHIP (Republic, 1954), Republic's last Western serial and the third to last serial they made, gave Barcroft an excellent and well-deserved valedictory to his long villain career--he played an honest sheriff who aids the masked hero, El Latigo (Richard Simmons) in his efforts to thwart a gang of outlaws (headed by Mauritz Hugo) who want to stir up an Indian war in order to grab gold deposits on the Indian reservation. He even gets let in on the secret of the hero's identity towards the end and gets to close out the serial with some comical bantering with the heroine (Barbara Bestar). I don't know if anyone knew that STEEL WHIP was going to be Roy's last serial, but in any case, it was a wonderful idea to let him finish out his cliffhanger career as a good guy.

Roy continued in the good guy mold cast in his final serial once he left Republic, and turned in many superb character portrayals of wise father figures or understanding sheriffs (see, for example, King Vidor's MAN WITHOUT A STAR, with Kirk Douglas). One of his best non-serial parts was as Colonel Logan, the owner of a summer ranch in Walt Disney's Spin and Marty TV show, who takes the spoiled son of a dead war buddy under his wing and teaches him to be a man during his stay on the ranch. After doing several other parts for Walt and for other studios, Roy landed a running role on GUNSMOKE, as the town storekeeper in the mid-sixties, and was working on that show when he passed away from cancer in 1969.

The old phrase "the villain you love to hate" applied perfectly to Roy Barcroft. He made such a great villain and enlivened so many serials that fans came to love him. They knew that he could always be counted on to give the good guys a hard time and keep things hopping until he met his end in the final chapter. In addition to the love of his fans, Roy also earned the love of Peggy Stewart, Sunset Carson, Kenne Duncan, Linda Stirling, Rex Allen, Lorna Gray, and everyone else who worked with him. He was truly a wonderful man as well as being a terrific actor, and as long as serials continue to be watched, Roy Barcroft will still be remembered as the greatest villain of them all.

Above: Roy (center) in DON DAREDEVIL RIDES AGAIN, flanked by John Cason (right) and Lane Bradford (left).

Above: Roy as Retik in RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON.

Above: Roy in his all-time favorite part--Captain Mephisto in MANHUNT OF MYSTERY ISLAND.