[2] He was married to actress Diana Churchill,[3] and worked with his wife on stage during the 1940s and 1950s, taking West End revivals of The Admirable Crichton and On Approval on profitable tours.

He accepted an offer to tour Australia with Margaret Rawlings; on the way his ship caught fire in the Red Sea and he spent six days on an island before being rescued.

Barnes leapt to national fame when Alexander Korda signed him to play the title role in Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937).

He returned to films playing the second male lead (with above-the-title billing) in Bedelia (1946), starring Lockwood.

[10] Barnes also appeared on stage as Harry Trench in Widowers' Houses (George Bernard Shaw's first play); as Alexander Mill in Candida (another of Shaw's early works) and as Octavius Barrett in the Barretts of Wimpole Street (by Rudolph Besier) at the Malvern Festival between 18 and 30 August 1930 (Source: Malvern Festival Programme, 1930).