Roy Barcroft

Although Barcroft's birth name is usually given as Howard Clifford Ravenscroft, both the California Death Index and the 1910, 1920, and 1930 U.S. Census list him as Howard H. Ravenscroft.

He served two hitches in the US Army, from 1915-1918 (he was wounded in action in World War I and was discharged) and from 1923-1926. After the stock-market crash of 1929, he traveled to California with his family, looking for work. In 1931 he heard of a movie studio that was looking for well-disciplined ex-soldiers as extras in a film, and because of his military past was hired to play a soldier in the Greta Garbo film Mata Hari (1931), beginning his long and extensive acting career.

After serving in World War I, Roy Barcroft spent most of the 1920s and early 1930s moving from job to job.

It was in the 1930s, after he moved to California with his wife, that he found his calling while acting in amateur theatrical productions.

In 1937 he was appearing in bit parts in various genres, but by 1938 he was in westerns, where he became a well-known (and memorable) "heavy". Roy would alternate among Monogram, Universal, Columbia and other studios.

Outlaws of Cherokee Trail (1941), Riders of the Rio Grande (1943) and Sun Valley Cyclone (1946) were but a few of the "B" westerns Roy turned out. Off-screen, he was known as one of the nicest, kindest and most helpful people anyone would want to meet, with a terrific sense of humor. More than once, many a leading hero type such as Barry or Elliot would find that their hairpieces would mysteriously disappear before they were to put them on prior to shooting. When the era of the "B" westerns started to fade out, Roy's volume of work also slowed.

In 1943, however, he signed an exclusive ten-year contract with Republic Pictures and became the convincing, and tireless, menace to all the good people in the West. He also did more than sneer at the likes of Don 'Red' Barry, Bill Elliot, Sunset Carson and Allan Lane.

Roy acted in The Fighting Seabees (1944), which starred John Wayne.

He was the Purple Martian in The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) and Capt.

Mephisto in Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945), and who can forget his Retik, The Moon Menace.

from the classic Commando Cody In "Radar Men From The Moon" - A Full 12 Chapter Rocketman Serial (1952)? Roy even played the good-natured marshal in Oklahoma! (1955). It was westerns, though, that were his bread and butter, and he knocked out a lot of them over the years.

He moved into the small screen with roles in TV westerns and also a recurring role in the Walt Disney production of The Adventures of Spin and Marty (1955).

He appeared in a handful of films, but his movie career had stalled by the end of 1957.

In the early 1960s he worked in a couple of movies, but his resurgence began in the mid-'60s when he appeared in low-budget films like Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966).