Barbara Rhoades

The Gun That Didn't Shake

Barbara Rhoades was six foot two.

Her height set her apart from the typical supporting actresses of the late 1960s. Yet that same physical presence let her steal scenes from established comedians. In 1968, she starred in The Shakiest Gun in the West alongside Don Knotts. She played Penelope Cushings, a federal agent who handled a gun with far more ease than the male lead.

Audiences would remember her for her marksmanship.

Before that role, she had already appeared in series such as The Monkees and Ironside. On television at the time, tall women were often relegated to villain roles or statuesque models. Rhoades broke that pattern with a sense of comic timing that few expected from a woman of her height. She worked on It Takes a Thief and on the legendary Mission: Impossible over 1970.

But physical comedy has its own rules.

In 1973 she appeared in The Goodbye Girl. In this Neil Simon film, she played Donna, a brief role that helped drive a storyline that ended up at the Oscars. Rhoades wasn't after the spotlight because she understood that the supporting player is the lifeblood of the industry. So she went from one project to the next without a break throughout the decade.

The home of daytime soap operas

Television changed her career path in the eighties. In 1981 she joined the cast of Soap, the parody of soap operas that broke new ground in the United States. There she brought Maggie Chandler to life. It was a smart move. Daytime serials offered a financial stability that major studio films were beginning to deny actresses over thirty.

Then came daytime television.

In 1989, she signed on to Generations as Jessica Gardner. The series was a pioneer in showing the lives of two families, one white and one Black, with equal dramatic weight. Rhoades brought a restraint that contrasted with the genre's excesses. But the show barely lasted two years on air due to fierce competition from the national networks.

She didn't stop after the show was canceled. In 2001, she joined the cast of One Life to Live as Irene Manning. Daytime soap viewers welcomed her with open arms. Her character was complex and carried family secrets that kept the audience glued to the screen for months. On that set, she worked alongside new generations of actors who saw in her a veteran they could learn the craft from.

In 2011 she made one of her last notable appearances on The Young and the Restless. She played Irene Manning once again, closing a professional circle that spanned more than four decades. The industry no longer produced the kind of comedies that had made her famous in the sixties. But she maintained her reputation as a tireless working actress and member of the actors' union.

Barbara Rhoades settled in Florida after retiring from constant filming. In 2023, fifty-five years had passed since the release of her biggest hit in the Western genre. Her profile with the actors' union lists more than seventy official credits across film and television.