Biography
Character actor Paul Bryar, like countless other people struggling to maintain a movie career in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, was frequently employed by the so-called Poverty Row studios like Republic, Monogram, and PRC who each cranked out cheap but profitable fare at a dizzying rate. When he wasn't making action-packed serials such as "Spy Smasher" or co-starring in espionage thrillers like William "One-Shot" Beaudine's "Foreign Agent," he was working sans credit on the Warner Brothers gangster movie "The Roaring Twenties" (which starred James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart) or in Paramount's "Midnight" (starring glamorous Claudette Colbert and the dashing Don Ameche). He co-starred in three PRC Michael Shayne mystery pictures--"Larceny in Her Heart," "Blonde for a Day," and "Three on a Ticket." Actors like John Wayne, who first made their name working in the Poverty Row productions, eventually progressed to bigger things. But the ones who didn't break out had to wait for television to offer up better roles. In 1965, Bryar had a regular gig as Sherriff Harve Anders in the drama series "The Long, Hot Summer," his most visible role in some time. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after its first season and he was back doing bit parts for years leading up to his death at age 75. Many viewers will remember him best for his small role as a card player at the beginning of the revisionist Western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
