Joan Barry was born in 1903. At the age of 15 she had her first small
part in "Luck of the Navy". Some of her talking pictures were: "Head
Waiter", A Man of Mayfair (1931)
and Rome Express (1932), while her
her first title role was in the film
Sally Bishop (1932).
Joan is likely to be remembered best for the uncredited role as the
voice of Anny Ondra in the first British Talkie
Blackmail (1929) - directed by
Alfred Hitchcock. She worked
with him again in
East of Shanghai (1931). Joan
Barry retired from the business in 1934 instead choosing marriage and
motherhood.
Joan Barry's daughter, Henrietta Joan Tiarks, became a successful model who later married Henry Robin Ian Russell, then the Marquess of Tavistock or the 14th Duke of Bedford, where she became the Dowager Duchess of Bedford.
Joan Barry's grandson, Andrew Ian Henry Russell, is presently the 15th Duke of Bedford, though he was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
She had two children with her only husband, Henry Frederic Tiarks III, a wealthy merchant banker. A daughter, Henrietta Joan Tiarks and a son, Edward Henry Tiarks who died when he was only six months old in 1943.