Anna Taliaferro was the founder of the first casting agency for theatrical children, to whom stage producers looked for young performers.

[7] According to one source, Barriscale was born Elizabeth Barry Scale in Hoboken, New Jersey,[8] to Irish immigrants from County Cork.

At Chicago in early May 1897, a brief profile on the children of that tour described Lizzie Barriscale as "nearly 11 years old", with a "beautiful soprano voice".

[5] An article on stage children from December 1899 mentioned Lizzie Barriscale as among the best-known of young performers, and included a photo of her indicating she was with the James Kidder Hanford Company.

[11] Her first known credit as Bessie Barriscale comes from a poorly received 1901 stock company performance of The Widow Bedott, for which she was the only actress praised.

[13] While performing The Rift Within Love's Cloud, a one-act comedy by F. Clifford Smith, during late March and early April, she met actor Sumner Gard, also in the play.

[18] Barriscale began her film career in 1913, debuting on-screen in Lasky Picture Company's Rose of the Rancho.

[13] She worked intensively for New York Motion Picture Company and Triangle Film Corporation (among other studios) until she announced her retirement in the early 1930s.

At this time, Miss Barriscale's managers insured her life for a half million dollars against eventualities.

The play was to travel to Philadelphia and Boston after opening in Washington, D.C.. Later the production appeared in New York City.

Actor Jackie Coogan and his parents purchased the home of Bessie Barriscale in Pellisier Square, Los Angeles in February 1922.

She played a "housewife type," and confessed to having rehearsed for the role in a gingham dress she took from the wardrobe of her home in Santa Monica, California.

She is interred next to her husband, Howard C. Hickman, at the Mount Tamalpais Cemetery in San Rafael, California.

[25] For her contributions to the film industry, Barriscale received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.