All About Barret

Some personal information about Barret is listed below, from sources listed throughout this site and magazine articles about him. Some information is going to be unknown, especially items that deal with the 'present'.

Just to clear up all the personal Barret information that is floating around, I have put up only the information that is the most interesting and informative. This information is all from credible sources to the best of my knowledge. All of this information is outdated now, and it more a reflection of his young life and early career than about anything he's done since. I've placed it here to show the truth, because there have been some myths and negative rumors floating around.

General Information:

Date of Birth: Friday, August 24th, 1973
Current age: 37
Parents: Kathy and Kent Oliver
Siblings: Brother Kyle Oliver
Residence: Los Angeles? State: California?
Religious background: unknown - Scientology?
Driver license: Yes
Special infos: He is a donor
Past Occupation: Actor
Past minor Job: Welder

Current Occupation: it was assumed he joined a scientology group and is editting their newsletter. But he has been credited as working as an assistant location manager for a movie called "Rennie's Landing" in 2001. -IMDb

Barret has been confirmed to be teaching photography in L.A.. After learning the 19th Century Wt-Plate process from artist Stephen Berkman and studying with master photographers Cole Weston and George Tice, Barret's print work has been part of numerous gallery and museum exhibitions. He has also done the Wet-Plate process in Ireland for a recent Guinness commercial and in Romania for the motion picture Cold Mountain. In addition, he has written articles on photography and contributed to demonstrations and workshops. Information came from the IMDb around February of 2004.

Some of his photographic works have been put in galleries and exhibitions. He is respected for his knowledge of 19th century photography techniques and has written a book called "A History of the Woodburytype: The First Sucessful Photochemical Printing Porcess of Walter Bentley Woodury" (2007).

He was involved in the wet plate photography for the movie Cold Mountain (2003), and is one of the 10 featured emerging photographers in the 2007 Silverstein Photography Annual (SPA). He has also worked with the Huntington Library to produce a short film "In the Usual Manner," where he demonstrates the wet plate photographic technique and provides audio commentary on the process and his experience.

Physical Information:

Race: Caucasian
Sex: Male
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Height: Unknown - (as of 1987 - 5'8'')
Weight: Unknown - (as of 1987 - 120 pounds)

Educational Background:

Elementary: Los Felez (Apple) School in Los Angeles
High School: unknown
College: unknown

Personal Relationship Information:

Marriage Status: unknown
Spouse: unkonwn
Children: unknown
Divorces: unknown

Parent's marital status: assumed divorced, mother Kathy lives in California, and father Kent lives in Florida.
Sibling status: unknown
Pets: A dog named Rita (a poodle)

Personal Information (from his youth):

Hobbies: Building model planes and cars
Fav Instrument: Guitar
Fav Author: Anne Rice
Fav Actor: Tim Curry
Fav Subjects: Math and Science
Fav Music Group: The Smiths
Fav Food: Submarine Sandwiches (interesting because he disliked sandwiches for a while)
Fav Sport: Baseball
Fav Pastime: Drawing
Dream: To fly
Best Quality: "My eyes"
Fav Car: 1959 Cadillac

Birthday: August 24, 1973 (Friday)
Astrological Sign: Virgo (also heard he was a cusp)

Horoscope: Virgo is sensitive to the environment with a delicate nervous system. They are particularly susceptible to dietary issues. They have a strong need for order and routine. Virgo is a great organizer, though this activity is a nuisance. They are excellent at research and inductive reasoning, but they sometimes get caught in details and miss the bigger picture. Virgo will usually marry, but is actually happier in the single life. He is also a cusp.

Other Celebrities born on August 24, 1973: David Chappelle

Interview Information:

From the German youth-magazine POP/Rocky we knew that Barret liked manga-movies and disliked sandwiches. His favorite subjects at school were maths and sciences. He like making models, particularly model airplanes. He was a forward and friendly boy when he was a child.

Memberships and Affiliations:

Screen Actors' Guild: Still affiliated but currently non-active,
Past Agencies: Triad Artists, Inc.Tannen and Associates
Personal Manager: Scott Terry
Past Residence: Bakersfield, CA
Barret was also a member in the Boy Scouts of America

Past Co-workers:

Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Tim Burton, Colleen Camp, Courtney Cox, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Shelley Duvall, Victor French, Jack Gilford, Alan Grint, Moses Gunn, Steve Guttenberg, Noah Hathaway, Michael Horden, Ron Howard, Mary Beth Hurt, Derek Jacobi, Gennie James, Ted Kotcheff, Michael Landon, Michael McKean, Wolfgang Peterson, Daniel Petrie, Joseph Sommer, Maureen Stapleton, Jadrien Steele, Daniel Stern, Elaine Stritch, Tami Stronach, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon, Kathryn Walker, Herta Ware, Tahnee Welch, Billie Whitelaw, Simon Wincer, Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Jacqueline Bisset, Ray Sharkey, Robert Beltran, Ed Begley Jr, Wallace Shawn, Arnetia Walker, Paul Mazursky, Edith Diaz, Rebecca Schaeffer, Jerry Tondo, Susan Saiger, Michael Feinstein, Debra Babos, Robert Gould, Robin Menken, Brett Porter, Johnny Johnson, Buckley Norris, Mark Lownethal, Marty Wyle, Allan Glaser, Bruce Wagner, Milford Wayne Kemp, Linda Doucett, Zane W. Levitt, David Hassolhoff and others.

Studio Affiliation:

Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Studions, Republic Pictures, Walt Disney, CBS/Fox, NBC, CBS, North Street Films, Neue Constantin Film - Bavaria Film studios...

Travels Abroad:


Los Angeles, California and vicinity; USA
Munich, Bavaria; Germany
Lynn Canyon Falls, British Columbia; Canada
St. Petersburg, Florida; USA
Miami, Florida; USA
Kissimmi, Florida; USA
Orlando, Florida; USA
San Francisco, California; USA
Atlanta; Georgia; USA
Virginia; USA
South Carolina; USA
England
France
etc.

Why did Barret Leave the Movie Industry?:


As a child you don't have it easy in this business. The adult actors, the directors and so on often are not very friendly to children, because a child is only a thing to make easy money and nothing more. Only a few directors see children as real persons. The first trouble Barret had was after making the movie D.A.R.Y.L.. In interviews, he suggested that "he can stop any time he wants" if acting was no longer in him. In 1989 Barret had finally had enough and he decided to leave the movie industry.

The reasons behind this are no doubt personal due to added pressures in his life. One can only speculate.  It might have been something as simple as a loss of interest, or something as personal as disgruntlement with the politics of the industry. Whatever the reason, he decided to pursue other interests that have obviously sustained him well and have probably been for the best. 

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good legs...!!!

Anonymous said...

Plain and simple, Oliver has been assimilated by the echelons of Scientology. The Apple school you list as his elementary school at the time was a gateway into the Scientology system. A controversy with that school is that during the mid 80s Scientology basically tried to force them to pay fees for using their "techniques" in education such as not teaching any disciplines like math, science, history, etc, but instead letting kids run free and do as they wish under the guidance of a "supervisor". Also, he was first enrolled in official Scientology classes starting 1989, exactly when he stopped acting. He is reportedly working on graphics for their "Celebrity" magazine which is an internal publication specifically aimed at the stars. Fact is you are never going to hear from this guy again. He is in lala land

Anonymous said...

i'm verry supporting him to not continue his carrier in film industry. Go Barret!!

Anonymous said...

i mean, his career in movie industry (xixi...)

Anonymous said...

The movie and TV business is hard and ruthless in the best of times. Let alone as a kid in an awkward phase of you life when you are changing from that cute kid to an adult.

Someone I know who did several films (for privacy reasons I don't put down his name) he landed a role and during the table reading the producer suddenly said that he could go because he did not have "the gimmick". The kid was only 12 or 13 back and they selected him after 3 call backs!

I never did feature film productions only TV but I always say there's two emotional states: "Either it's an all time high and it's super fun, or it is the worst thing you can do -- a lot of rows and heated discussions on sets."

And I have the utmost respect for onscreen actors, that's the most repetitive boring job you can do. Playing a seen 20 times to get shots from all the angles -- especially when only 1 camera is used.

But yeah I understand that adolescence are at one point seen as a mere spec of dust on a 35mm prime lens. They can overly friendly or just flat out mean to.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Barret joined the Sea Org branch of Scientology and was stationed at their International Base outside Hemet starting in 1989. His formal education ended at that time.

His most recent project is a short film on the Huntington Library website, www.huntington.org, featuring the wet plate photographic process, as well as some interesting observations in voice files about the historicity of photographs and why they impart such an immediate impression. It's entitled "In The Usual Manner." Pretty cool stuff!

Anonymous said...

He left Scientology in 1989 when he decided not to deal with Hollywood