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Barret Spencer Oliver (born August 24, 1973) is an American former child actor who later found work as a photographer. He became famous for such roles as the boy Bastian in the film adaptation of The NeverEnding Story and an android in D.A.R.Y.L.

Biography

Early life

Oliver was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Kathy and Kent Oliver, an interior designer. He has an older brother, Kyle. Oliver attended the Los Feliz Private School (also sometimes called the Apple School) and continued to live in the Los Angeles area throughout his acting career.

In the late 1970s, a friend of the Oliver family with connections introduced Kyle to the movie business, where he soon achieved some modest success in juvenile roles. At once, Barret on his own initiative declared that he would like to venture on to the screen. His first appearances were in a number of commercials, and this eventually led to small roles in television productions such as Battlestar Galactica and The Incredible Hulk.

Career: 1982–1985

By 1982, Oliver was being offered more significant, speaking roles in the feature movies Kiss Me Goodbye, Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again, and Uncommon Valor. There was also a well-developed character for him in the pilot episode of Knight Rider for television, and in a further pilot for The Circle Family which did not evolve into the expected series. During the autumn of the same year, he was one of 200 boys to audition for the role of Bastian in the imminent production of The NeverEnding Story, to be directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Barret made a strong impression, but was initially rejected on the grounds of being too young and immature for the role.

By March 1983, however, the casting directors for The NeverEnding Story had still not found their ideal Bastian, and Barret was called to re-audition. The agents were amazed that he had matured so much in a few months, and they were impressed by the confidence and intensity with which he read the scene with Bastian in conversation with Koreander, though he had declined the chance of a practice run. It happened that Petersen was in LA at that time for the Oscar presentations. So it was arranged that Barret should meet Petersen in a lounge at LA airport; Petersen's Lufthansa flight was delayed so that the meeting could take place. Barret was immediately confirmed in the Bastian role, and shooting began in Munich only a few weeks later.

The NeverEnding Story was filmed in Munich during the spring and summer of 1983, and it premiered in Germany in April 1984. Barret's powerful contribution to the success of this movie brought him a measure of international stardom, and despite the author of the original book reportedly being unhappy with the film, it is still regarded as a classic. At around the time of the release of The NeverEnding Story, Tim Burton was planning his first live-action movie under the Disney banner. This was to be Frankenweenie, which spoofed, but also paid loving tribute to, the gothic horror genre. The lead role was that of a young boy who uses Frankensteinian techniques to resuscitate his beloved dog, killed in a traffic accident. Burton was keen to cast Barret in this part, and the movie was shot in a few weeks in the early summer of 1984. But once it was completed, Disney lost the courage to release it. In spite of that, it eventually came to be regarded as a minor classic, and remained widely available as of early April 2008.

In that same year, he was featured in Wes Craven's Invitation to Hell, in the Highway to Heaven episode "To Touch The Moon," and in the Finder of Lost Loves episode "Portraits." These were minor productions, but Barret had a major role in each of them.

Career: 1985 --

Barret was not short of screen work at this time. He spent the late summer of 1984 in Florida, filming the role of David in Cocoon under the direction of Ron Howard. Oliver was very effective in this, but he himself was quick to acknowledge his debt to Howard's directorial assistance. The David character is central to the movie's storyline, appearing in both the first and last scene, and Barret also had the chance to learn from working with a cast of veteran Hollywood stars. Yet Barret's career was developing further even while Cocoon was being shot. He had been shortlisted for the title role of Daryl in D.A.R.Y.L.. and he was flown to New York during the Cocoon shoot to confirm him in this role.

Filming for D.A.R.Y.L. started in January 1985; the first scene to be shot was Daryl's and Turtle's first day at school. There were location shoots in Florida, North Carolina, and France, while the technical scenes were completed at Pinewood Studios near London, England, in March 1985. The movie opened in June of that year, and critical reaction was mixed. The movie itself was regarded as enjoyable, but less meaningful in the context of its human/android theme than had been hoped; yet Barret's playing of the title role was widely regarded as a skilled example of juvenile acting. He and his family paid their only visit to Japan at this time, to promote D.A.R.Y.L., and there was considerable worldwide interest in the movie.

Oliver won the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for his role as the cyborg Daryl in the film D.A.R.Y.L.

Oliver's next appearance was in the Shelley Duvall production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in her Tall Tales and Legends series for TV. At the end of the year (1985) he returned to the realm of sci-fi in "Gramma," an episode of The New Twilight Zone (NTZ) based on a Stephen King story. Here Barret was on screen for the entire episode, and also did the voice-overs, but the low production values in NTZ prevented Barret's efforts from making much critical impression. In 1986, however, he moved on to his last feature-length role as a juvenile actor in Disney's lightweight comedy-crime-spoof Spot Marks the X. Here at last Barret was able to play the part of a normal, well-balanced, good-humored American youth, and he clearly reveled in the opportunity.

Henceforth Barret, his voice now changed, took on the roles of teenagers rather than children. In 1987 he returned to England to play the role of Dickon Sowerby in The Secret Garden with a galaxy of British stars that included Sir Michael Hordern and Sir Derek Jacobi. Next, after completing an episode in the Hooperman television series, he was recalled in 1988 for a reprise as David in Cocoon: The Return, but by this time his natural charm and confidence in front of a camera was less conspicuous, and he lacked the support of Ron Howard.

In 1988 or 1989 Oliver became a member of the Church of Scientology. In 1989 he was asked by Paul Bartel to take on the role of Willie Saravian in Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills. Here Barret broke new ground, as his role was that of a diseased teenager with sexual fantasies. This became his last known acting role as of May 2009.

Photography

As of early April 2008, Oliver was working as a teacher of photography classes in Los Angeles, and some of his photographic works were exhibited in galleries and exhibitions. He became respected for his knowledge of 19th century photography techniques, and he even wrote a book titled A History Of The Woodburytype (ISBN 1887694285). He was also involved in the wet plate photography for the movie Cold Mountain. In addition, Oliver was one of the ten featured emerging photographers in the 2007 Silverstein Photography Annual (SPA).

Filmography

• Knight Rider (1982) (TV)
• Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (1982)
• The Circle Family (1982) (TV)
• Kiss Me Goodbye (1982)
• Uncommon Valor (1983/I)
• Invitation to Hell (1984) (TV)
• Frankenweenie (1984)
• The NeverEnding Story (1984)
• D.A.R.Y.L. (1985)
• Cocoon (1985)
• Spot Marks the X (1986) (TV)
• The Secret Garden (1987) (TV)
• Cocoon: The Return (1988)
• Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)

External links

• Barret Oliver at IMDb
• Unofficial Fan Site
• A History of the Woodburytype
• Silverstein Photography Annual
• http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/b/barret-oliver.html

References

• Unreferenced BLPs from October 2007
• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from December 2007
• 1973 births
• American child actors
• American film actors
• American photographers
• American television actors
• Living people
• People from Los Angeles, California