--- name: "George Barbier" canonical: "https://film.one/person/george-barbier" roles: ["Actor"] born: "17 November 1864" died: "19 July 1945" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 78 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-20T00:48:13.294253+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # George Barbier Actor. Born 17 November 1864 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Died 19 July 1945. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 17 November 1864, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA - **Died:** 19 July 1945 - **Active:** 1931–1942 - **Also known as:** Джордж Барбье, George W. Barbier - **Frequently works with:** [Charles Ruggles](https://film.one/person/charles-ruggles.md), [Ernst Lubitsch](https://film.one/person/ernst-lubitsch.md), [Maurice Chevalier](https://film.one/person/maurice-chevalier.md), [Samson Raphaelson](https://film.one/person/samson-raphaelson.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 78 (2), 1940s 78 (1) - **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Comedy 2, Romance 2, Drama 1, Music 1 - **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Barbier_(actor), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3101412, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0053616/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/30276 ## Fi1m on George Barbier > George Barbier played the man in charge who is never really in charge: kings, commissioners and fathers, fat and fond and outmanoeuvred by the young. He did it for Lubitsch three times, and he did it well without once doing it differently. A king in *The Smiling Lieutenant* (1931) sits across a draughts board from a daughter who is sulking at him, and it is plain from the set of his shoulders that he has lost this argument before and will lose it again. That is George Barbier's method in one scene. He was large and white-haired and he carried authority the way a man carries a coat that no longer fits: it is his, everyone can see it is his, and it is not doing him much good. He came to films late. He had started in light opera and stock companies after giving up on the ministry, played seven Broadway productions between 1922 and 1930, including *The Front Page*, and signed with Paramount in 1929, making his debut in *The Big Pond* (1930). He was in his mid-sixties when the studio put him to work and he worked without stopping, around eighty-eight films in fifteen years. Three were for Ernst Lubitsch: King Adolf in *The Smiling Lieutenant*, the Police Commissioner in *One Hour with You* (1932), King Achmed II in *The Merry Widow* (1934). Later he was Dr Bradley in *The Man Who Came to Dinner* (1942) and Erlanger in *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), still the man behind a desk while other people had the film. The parts were nearly always the same: pompous but kind-hearted businessmen and patriarchs, judges, commissioners, kings, executives. The only reservation anyone has ever raised about him is that, and it is a fair one. We called his Adolf fat, fond and easily managed, and we could have written the same sentence about most of what he did. In *One Hour with You* he is the commissioner and our review did not mention him at all, which is a fair description of the job he was hired for. But he did the job with more warmth than it required. We liked King Adolf a good deal more than the film needed us to; a monarch who spends his scenes being sulked at over a board game is hard to fear and easy to feel for, and Barbier never asked for the laugh at his own expense, he simply let it happen. That is why Lubitsch kept using him. A farce needs someone solid for the young people to run rings round, and it needs him not to mind. Watch the two Lubitsch films we have reviewed for Hopkins and Colbert and Chevalier, and notice, somewhere behind them, a large man in a uniform being agreeable while the plot happens to him. He kept that job until the year he died. ## Biography George W. Barbier was an American stage and film actor. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he studied for the ministry at Crozer Theological Seminary before turning to the stage. He appeared in several Broadway productions in the 1920s, including *The Front Page*. Barbier made his film debut in *The Big Pond* (1930) and went on to appear in around 88 films, typically in supporting roles as businessmen or patriarchs. His credits include King Adolf XV in *The Smiling Lieutenant* (1931), the Police Commissioner in *One Hour with You* (1932), King Achmet in *The Merry Widow* (1934), and Dr. Bradley in *The Man Who Came to Dinner* (1941). He also appeared in *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942) and *The Return of Frank James* (1940). He was married to the stage actress Caroline Thatcher until her death in 1939. Barbier died in Hollywood, California, in 1945. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), Fi1m 78, as Erlanger — [page](https://film.one/film/yankee-doodle-dandy.md) - *One Hour with You* (1932), Fi1m 77, as Police Commissioner — [page](https://film.one/film/one-hour-with-you.md) - *The Smiling Lieutenant* (1931), Fi1m 78, as King Adolf XV — [page](https://film.one/film/the-smiling-lieutenant.md) ## Complete filmography (86) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Blonde Ransom* (1945), as Uncle William Morrison - *Her Lucky Night* (1945), as J.L. Wentworth - *Week-End Pass* (1944), as Commander 'Pops' Bradley - *Hello, Frisco, Hello* (1943), as Col. Weatherby - *Thunder Birds* (1942), as Col. Cyrus P. 'Gramps' Saunders - *The Magnificent Dope* (1942), as James Roger Barker - *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), as Erlanger — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/yankee-doodle-dandy.md) - *Song of the Islands* (1942), as Jefferson Harper Sr. - *The Man Who Came to Dinner* (1941), as Dr. Bradley - *Marry the Boss's Daughter* (1941), as J.W. Barrett - *Week-End in Havana* (1941), as Walter McCracken - *Sing Another Chorus* (1941), as Mr. Peyton - *Million Dollar Baby* (1941), as Marlin - *Repent at Leisure* (1941), as Robert Cornelius Baldwin - *The Return of Frank James* (1940), as Judge - *Village Barn Dance* (1940), as Uncle Si - *Remember?* (1939), as Mr. McIntyre - *Smuggled Cargo* (1939), as C.P. Franklin - *News Is Made at Night* (1939), as Clanahan - *S.O.S Tidal Wave* (1939), as Uncle Dan Carter - *Wife, Husband and Friend* (1939), as Major Blair - *Sweethearts* (1938), as Benjamin Silver - *Straight, Place and Show* (1938), as Mr. Drake - *Hold That Co-ed* (1938), as Maj. Hubert Breckenridge - *My Lucky Star* (1938), as George Cabot Sr - *Little Miss Broadway* (1938), as Fiske - *Hold That Kiss* (1938), as Mr. Piermont - *The Adventures of Marco Polo* (1938), as Kublai Khan - *Tarzan's Revenge* (1938), as Roger Reed - *A Girl with Ideas* (1937), as John Morton - *It's Love I'm After* (1937), as William West - *Hotel Haywire* (1937), as I. Ketts - *Waikiki Wedding* (1937), as J.P. Todhunter - *On the Avenue* (1937), as Commodore Caraway - *Three Married Men* (1936), as Mr. Cary - *Spendthrift* (1936), as Uncle Morton Middleton - *Early to Bed* (1936), as Horace Stanton - *The Princess Comes Across* (1936), as Captain Nicholls - *Wife vs. Secretary* (1936), as J.D. Underwood - *The Preview Murder Mystery* (1936), as Jerome Hewitt - *The Milky Way* (1936), as Wilbur Austin - *Millions in the Air* (1935), as Calvin Keller - *Here Comes Cookie* (1935), as Harrison Allen - *Hollywood Extra Girl* (1935), as Crusades Actor (uncredited) - *The Crusades* (1935), as Sancho, King of Navarre - *Old Man Rhythm* (1935), as John Roberts Sr. - *Broadway Gondolier* (1935), as Music Critic Hayward - *Hold 'Em Yale* (1935), as Mr. Van Cleve - *Life Begins at Forty* (1935), as Col. Joseph Abercrombie - *McFadden´s Flats* (1935), as Mr. Hall - *College Rhythm* (1934), as John P. Stacey - *The Merry Widow* (1934), as King Achmet - *She Loves Me Not* (1934), as J. Thorval Jones - *Ladies Should Listen* (1934), as Joseph Flamberg - *The Cat's-Paw* (1934), as Jake Mayo - *Elmer and Elsie* (1934), as John Kincaid - *Many Happy Returns* (1934), as Horatio Allen - *Journal of a Crime* (1934), as Chautard - *Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen* (1934), as MacCready - *Tillie and Gus* (1933), as Captain Fogg - *Love, Honor and Oh, Baby!* (1933), as Jasper B. Ogden - *Turn Back the Clock* (1933), as Pete Evans - *This Day and Age* (1933), as Judge Maguire - *Mama Loves Papa* (1933), as Mr. Kirkwood - *Sunset Pass* (1933), as Judge - *Under the Tonto Rim* (1933), as Weston - *A Lady's Profession* (1933), as James Garfield - *Hello, Everybody!* (1933), as Mr. Blair - *No Man of Her Own* (1932), as Mr. Randall - *Evenings for Sale* (1932), as Henrich Fischer - *The Big Broadcast* (1932), as Clapsaddle - *The Phantom President* (1932), as Ronkton - *Madame Racketeer* (1932), as Warden George Waddell - *Skyscraper Souls* (1932), as Norton - *Million Dollar Legs* (1932), as Mr. Baldwin - *The Strange Case of Clara Deane* (1932), as Richard Ware - *The Broken Wing* (1932), as Luther Farley - *One Hour with You* (1932), as Police Commissioner — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/one-hour-with-you.md) - *Strangers in Love* (1932), as Mr. Merrow - *No One Man* (1932), as Alfred Newbold - *Touchdown!* (1931), as Jerome Gehring - *Girls About Town* (1931), as Mr. Webfield - *24 Hours* (1931), as Hector Champion - *The Smiling Lieutenant* (1931), as King Adolf XV — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/the-smiling-lieutenant.md) - *The Sap from Syracuse* (1930), as Senator Powell - *The Big Pond* (1930), as Mr. Billings ## Gallery - ![George Barbier](https://film.one/media/person/1225688/gallery-0d16f6a3277f.jpg) George Barbier — Paramount Productions Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/The_Milky_Way_%281936%29_poster_1.jpg/1280px-The_Milky_Way_%281936%29_poster_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![George Barbier in Tarzan's Revenge (1938)](https://film.one/media/person/1225688/gallery-10a6a0e2af91.jpg) George Barbier in Tarzan's Revenge (1938) — D. Ross Lederman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/George_Barbier_Tarzan%27s_Revenge_%281938%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![George Barbier](https://film.one/media/person/1225688/gallery-2347cf4b8005.jpg) George Barbier — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/george-barbier