Later, for nearly a decade in the 1970s, Barry provided the opening act for Midnight Idol Wayne Newton, warming audiences at a variety of Howard Hughes-owned Hotels (The Desert Inn, the Sands and the Frontier).

Because Barry excelled at mimicry and mastered an endless stream of accents/dialects and offbeat sounds, when he moved to Hollywood in the early 1940s, he sought out more cartoon voice work with Columbia, Warner Bros., Disney, Republic Pictures, and Screen Gems.

His most sought-after skill was uncannily impersonating celebrities of the period, including Groucho Marx, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, James Cagney and Clark Gable, which he did with gusto in countless Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.

For Looney Tunes, Dave Barry became best known for numerous appearances of Humphrey Bogart and other classic celebrities in cartoons such as Bacall to Arms (1946), Slick Hare (1947), 8 Ball Bunny (1950) and the star-studded Hollywood Steps Out (1941).

He also provided numerous voices for Capitol Records children's albums in the 1950s like "Bozo Under the Sea" with Pinto Colvig, Bugs Bunny, Merrie Melodies, Pink Panther, Popeye the Sailor, Roland and Rattfink and Sniffles along with Elmer Fudd and Mr. Magoo.

He appeared with Marilyn Monroe in the B-movie Ladies of the Chorus (1948), and 11 years later, he was reunited with her in what was perhaps his most famous role: bumbling band manager Beinstock in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959).

Nightclub work paired Barry with top names of the period, including Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Della Reese, Frank Sinatra, Liberace, The Four Step Brothers, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Tommy Dorsey.

Barry was the father of five children (Alan, Kerry, Steve, Dana, and Wendy) and was married to his wife, singer Ginny (Ginger), for over 50 years until his death from cancer in 2001.