Barbara Babcock, a renowned American character actress, was born with striking blue eyes and fiery red hair, often portraying strong-willed and resolute women on screen. Despite being born in Kansas, she spent a significant portion of her early childhood in Japan, where her father, U.S. Army Major General Conrad Stanton Babcock Jr., was stationed. Her father was a talented equestrian who even competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics, while her mother, Jadwiga Florence Noskowiak, was a Chilean-born former stage actress and singer.
Barbara attended universities in Lausanne and Milan before graduating from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Initially, she aimed to pursue a diplomatic career with the State Department, but when this opportunity fell through, she turned to acting, making her screen debut in 1956. From the early 1960s, she began making guest appearances in numerous television series, eventually becoming known for her Emmy Award-winning performance as the over-amorous Grace Gardner in NBC's Hill Street Blues (1981) and as pioneer newspaper editor Dorothy Jennings in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993).
Throughout her career, Barbara featured in several episodes of Star Trek (1966),often providing her voice for assorted alien background characters. She also played a member of the 'underground' in episodes of Hogan's Heroes (1965) and Pam Ewing's fashion boss in Dallas (1978). In addition, she was one of the leads in Alan Alda's sitcom The Four Seasons (1984),about four middle-aged couples who vacation together four times annually, once per season. She played the orthopedist wife of Allan Arbus, of M*A*S*H (1972) fame.
Barbara went on to star in her own right as a demure attorney, counterpoint to Jerry Orbach's vociferous, seedy 'old school' gumshoe, in the short-lived CBS mystery drama The Law and Harry McGraw (1987). She also appeared in Salem's Lot (1979),Mannix (1967),and Murder, She Wrote (1984),alternating between murder victim and villainess of the week.
