PUEBLO, Colo.—Robert Guy Barrows, 81, who produced Beat poet Michael McClure’s play “The Beard” as well as teaching playwriting and writing for popular TV shows, has died.
The Writer’s Guild announced the death on Jan. 31 of the former UCLA drama instructor, who was a veteran of the famed 10th Mountain Division in World War II, the Los Angeles Times and Pueblo Chieftain reported.
Barrows, who had lived in Pueblo for the past decade, died of complications from intestinal cancer.
He wrote episodes for several popular shows, including “Mission: Impossible,” “Bonanza,” “The Virginian,” “Daniel Boone,” “The Fugitive” and others.
Barrows was repeatedly arrested in Los Angles on obscenity charges while attempting to stage “The Beard” at the Warner Playhouse in January of 1968. The play told the story of an imaginary meeting between Billy the Kid and actress Jean Harlow. It ended with a simulated sex act.
Police arrested Barrows and McClure, along with the two actors, Richard Bright and Alexandra Hay, more than a dozen times for alleged lewd conduct, and Barrows also was cited for producing the play without a police permit.
The charges were dismissed after the California Supreme Court ruled that the state’s lewd conduct law did not apply to theater because it is protected as free speech under the 1st Amendment.
Barrows earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature after the war from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1950 and a master’s degree in theater arts from UCLA in 1954.
One of his last productions, in Pueblo, was “The Last Supper.” He said he produced it to change the focus of movies and teleivision from sex and violence to wholesome values, the Chieftain reported.
“At the end of his life, he was pitching a novel to publishers about the first woman president of the United States, an idea he had been working on in various forms since the ’70s,” said David Barrows, his son.
Barrows is survived by his fourth wife, Jeri Wacaster; six children; one stepchild; two grandchildren; a brother; and a sister.
