Barry Gordon (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and political talk show host.[1] He was the longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, having served from 1988 to 1995. He is perhaps best known as the original voice of Donatello and Bebop in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
Gordon began performing at age three; in his television debut, he won second place on Ted Mack's Amateur Hour singing Johnnie Ray's "Cry". At six, Gordon recorded "Nuttin' for Christmas".[1] He was the youngest performer to hit a pre-Hot 100 Billboard chart when that song hit No. 6 in 1955.[4] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[5] The next year, he charted his second and final single "Rock Around Mother Goose". In circa 1956, Bill Haley recorded a private demo recording "Six Year Olds Can Rock and Roll". He begins the recording (released in 1990) by dedicating it to Barry Gordon.[6]
In 1962, he played the part of the childhood version of "Patient" in Pressure Point. At 13, Gordon began a career on Broadway as Nick in Herb Gardner's A Thousand Clowns, a role for which he earned a Tony Award nomination. He later reprised that role in the film version opposite Jason Robards and Martin Balsam in 1965. The film gave him "introducing" billing, but he had actually been in several films already, most notably his actual film debut in 1956's The Girl Can't Help It as a newspaper boy in which he uttered the line after seeing Jayne Mansfield: "If that's a girl, I don't know what my sister is."
Primarily as a character actor, Gordon became a familiar face in numerous feature films and television series. In the last two seasons of the sitcom Archie Bunker's Place, Gordon had the recurring role of Gary Rabinowitz, Archie's Jewish attorney and love interest of Barbara Lee "Billie" Bunker (played by Denise Miller). Gordon also had notable guest-starring roles on Barney Miller as an embezzler, on Fish as a social worker, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a Ferengi businessman, and on Star Trek: Voyager as Ardon Broht, an alien publisher. More recently, he appeared as the Rabbi in Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm.
In May 2009, Gordon played the Cocker Spaniel in the Webkinz Pet of the Month Music Video for May 2009. He reprised the roles as the original Donatello and Bebop in three seasons of Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
On April 20, 2022, it was revealed that Gordon would reprise his role as Donatello for the video game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. This marks the first time that he would play Donatello for a video game and his first video game role in general.
In his mid-30s, Gordon returned to school; he graduated summa cum laude as a political science major from California State University, Los Angeles and went on to Loyola Law School, receiving his J.D. in 1991.
Gordon became the longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, holding the office for seven years.
In 2004, when the local Air America Radio affiliate in Los Angeles went off the air, for a then-unspecified period of time, Gordon started a live, call-in progressive political talk show on Pasadena's public-access television cable TV channel 56. It continues to be cablecast and webcast live
In 2005, Gordon hosted a weekly radio talk show heard on KRLA in Los Angeles, California.
In 2006 and early 2007, Gordon hosted Barry Gordon from Left Field, a weekly talk show broadcast throughout the 25th largest U.S. radio market—the San Bernardino/Riverside region of Southern California—on KCAA Radio in Loma Linda, California. With live streams and podcast archives, the show was notable for featuring nationally known guests, including senators, congressmen, bestselling authors, and entertainment figures.
Since 2007, Gordon has taught courses in politics and the media at the California State University, Los Angeles.
In 2008, Gordon debuted his daily Internet talk show Left Talk on BlogTalkRadio.
Personal life
Gordon's first marriage to Sally Julian, a television host, ended in divorce.[8] He married Gail Schaper, a business psychologist, in 1993; they have two children.[8][9]
