One of my favorite performances by Barnard Huges who died this past Monday morning just six days short of his 91st Birthday, was a made-for-TV film from 1975 called The UFO Incident. Also starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons, it told the true-life story of Betty and Barney Hill, the New England couple who were plagued by crippling anxiety and horrific nightmares over an alleged alien abduction in 1961. Based on the novel, The Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller, the film has a stage like quality that is befitting it's cast of New York theater veterans. Hughes plays Dr. Benjamin Simon, the psychiatrist trying to get to the bottom of the Hill's nightmarish recollections of what happened on September 19, 1961 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The scenes depicting the troubled couples' hypnosis sessions cleverly utilizes real transcripts that are at times chilling, powerful and overwhelming. These are fully realized performances in what could have been a forgetful movie-of-the-week. To this day the film has never been released to Home Video, and is barely seen on late night TV. Luckily, many of Barnard Huges' memorable performances are available on VHS and DVD. Among his many big-screen performances were Midnight Cowboy, Cold Turkey, The Hospital, Oh, God!, First Monday in October, Tron and The Lost Boys. And some of his TV appearances include: The Guiding Light, Route 66, Dark Shadows, As the World Turns, Hawaii Five-O, The Bob Newhart Show, All in the Family, The Cavanaughs, Day One, Blossom, and Lou Grant for which he won an Emmy Award in 1978. Huges was most prolific on stage winning a Tony in 1978 for his starring role in Da on Broadway, a role he would later repeat in the 1988 film version. Hughes was one of those recognizable faces on stage and screen who brought an abundance of charm and wit to every role he played.
Barnard Hughes Movies
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