Years active 1955-present | Name John Barbour Role Actor | |
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Full Name Jonanthan Barbour Born April 24, 1933 (age 90) ( 1933-04-24 ) Toronto, Ontario, Canada Movies and TV shows Real People, The Gong Show, The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes Nominations Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series Similar People Jim Garrison, Skip Stephenson, Sarah Purcell, Bill Rafferty, George Schlatter | ||
Occupation Actor, television host | ||
John Barbour (born on April 24, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario), known as the godfather of reality TV, is an actor, comedian, television host, and 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 reality television series Real People, for which he was also a creator and co-producer.
Career
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.
He is perhaps best known for creating and appearing in the hit 1970s TV show Real People. He also hosted the pilot for The Gong Show in the mid-1970s (walking away from the show in objection to its farcical premise and forcing producer Chuck Barris 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.
Barbour portrayed game show host Harry Monte in a 1975 episode of Sanford and Son.
Barbour wrote and narrated Keith Burns' documentary Ernie Kovacs: 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 Jim Garrison, who, after the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, decided to further investigate the official report given by the Warren Commission. The documentary hypothesizes connections between the assassination and the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and other organizations and foreign affairs issues. The film won an award in 1993 at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.