John Barbour (born April 24, 1933) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and television host who has worked extensively in the United States. Barbour is the only performer in TV to win Emmys for both entertainment and news shows. Barbour is known as one of the hosts of the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series ''

Real People ''Real People'' is an American reality television series that originally aired on NBC from 1979 to 1984, Wednesdays from 8 pm to 9pm Eastern Time. Its initial episodes aired live in the Eastern and Central time zones. ''Real People'' featured "r ...

'', for which he was also a creator and co-producer.

Career

Born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Barbour moved to the United States in the early 1960s. His comedy act, particularly his 1965 album ''It's Tough to Be White'', dealt in part with civil rights and black-white relations. In 1971, he hosted a local daytime talk show on CBS-owned KNXT (now

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent outl ...

) in Los Angeles. Barbour would later do a brief stint in Chicago as co-host of ''AM Chicago'' on ABC-owned

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North State S ...

in 1978. Barbour is perhaps best known for creating and appearing in the hit 1970s TV show ''

''. He also hosted the pilot for ''

The Gong Show ''The Gong Show'' is an American amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to 1 ...

'' in the mid-1970s (walking away from the show in objection to its farcical premise and forcing producer

Chuck Barris Charles Hirsch Barris (June 3, 1929 – March 21, 2017) was an American game show creator, producer, and host. Barris was known for hosting ''The Gong Show'' and creating ''The Dating Game'' and ''The Newlywed Game''. He was also a songwrite ...

to step in front of the cameras as host), and was a regular panelist on the 1988 Canadian (US syndicated) version of ''

Liar's Club ''Liar's Club'' is an American game show, originally produced by Ralph Andrews, featuring a panel of celebrity guests who offered explanations of obscure or unusual objects. Contestants attempted to determine which explanation was correct in ord ...

''. Barbour portrayed game show host Harry Monte in a 1975 episode of ''

Sanford and Son ''Sanford and Son'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977. It was based on the British sitcom ''Steptoe and Son'', which initially aired on BBC One in the United ...

''. Barbour was the executive producer of the game show ''That **** Quiz Show'' (''That Awful! Quiz Show'') hosted by Greg & John Rice in 1982. Barbour wrote and narrated Keith Burns' documentary ''

Ernie Kovacs Ernest Edward Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was a Hungarian-American comedian, actor, and writer. Kovacs's visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years afte ...

: Television's Original Genius.'' He also directed and wrote the 1992 documentary ''The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes''. This film covers the investigation of

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...

Jim Garrison James Carothers Garrison (born Earling Carothers Garrison; November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he ...

, who, after the 1963 assassination of

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

, decided to further investigate the official report given by the

Warren Commission The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the assassination of United States Pr ...

. The documentary hypothesizes connections between the assassination and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

, the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

, the

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

, the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...

, the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, and other organizations and foreign affairs issues. The film won an award in 1993 at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. He directed and wrote another documentary, “The American Media And The Second Assassination of President John F. Kennedy,” which released to specific audiences in 2017, but saw a broader audience in 2019 when it was showcased in iTunes, Vimeo and Amazon. This follow-up documentary is an extension of his critically acclaimed "The Garrison Tapes," and has received significant praise for its detail and exposition on the subjects of the JFK murder and the evolution of contemporary Fake News. IMdB has scored the documentary 8.6 out of a possible 10.

References

External links

VH1: John Barbour bio
*

Watch

at ''John Barbour's World'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbour, John 1933 births Living people Canadian expatriate male actors in the United States Male actors from Toronto

Career

References

Further reading

External links

Watch