A native of
Chicago, Illinois, He attended
Senn High School and later the Major School of Acting in Los Angeles. Beginning in 1932, Barnes worked at radio station
KMPC in
Beverly Hills, both as an announcer and as the writer and narrator of his own weekly series,
Famous Operas. The following year, he was promoted to program manager. In 1934, Barnes moved to
KFWB, where he produced a weekly series of historical plays,
The American Parade. In September,
Broadcasting reported that he had moved to
KFI, as the writer/producer of numerous shows, including his American history series, as well another, simply titled
Makers of History. In January 1936, at
KECA in Los Angeles, Barnes directed a live, on-air performance of
Othello, in its entirety, featuring
Lindsay MacHarrie in the title role and
Mary Jane Higby as
Desdemona and
Bret Morrison as
Iago. In November 1940, Barnes was elected national president of the
Radio Writers' Guild. Throughout his career (extending from the initial stock company tours through his tenure, not quite two decades later, as actor-director of the Palo Alto Community Players), Barnes retained an ongoing commitment to performing, and to live theater. Highlights of that onstage career include portrayals of
'Maxim' de Winter in
Rebecca, of the "burnt-out movie director" in
Kay Van Riper's
Cantina, of "Pat"—to his real-life wife's "Mabel"—in
Three Men on a Horse, and of Sheridan Whiteside, the
Alexander Woollcott-modeled protagonist of
The Man Who Came to Dinner. Reviewing the latter performance,
Palo Alto Times critic Dorothy Nichols notes that "Woollcott playing Woollcott doubled the joke in San Francisco, but Forrest Barnes, without reliance on rotundity, makes his own characterization.He holds the key to Sheridan Whiteside in an unending relish for all sensation, whether a bit of dripping sentimentality, a juicy murder, a genuine love affair, a bold stand, a touch of genius, or a bite of food. [...] Without this gusto he would become an insufferable impertinence, for he belongs to the decade when the calculated insult was the highest form of wit, but with it he is a lovable devil. Barnes' tone of voice on the telephone, his laugh, his eager ear and susceptible eye convey the man's relish of a situation, and his savage ruthlessness is mainly a defense against bores. As for writing, one particularly intriguing—albeit ultimately unrealized—project was
Goodbye Uncle Tom, envisioned as a socially conscious musical reimagining of
Harriet Beecher Stowe's ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin'', with Barnes assisting
Essie Robeson—wife of
Paul—in providing the book and conductor/composer David Broekman handling the music. Despite respective 1944 news reports of "an early summer production" and "an upcoming Broadway production" (with erstwhile
Orson Welles trouper
Maurice Ellis set to star), adaptation evidently proved a lengthier process than anticipated, and the finished product was eventually nixed—as excessively "ponderous"—by producer
Herman Shumlin, and the project was ultimately abandoned. ==Political activity==