Barry went on to bigger budget films following Red Ryder, but none reached his previous level of success.

However, his mother died of tuberculosis in March 1910 (one month shy of her 20th birthday), rendering subsequent years impossible.

[8] Barry continued in Western roles and made two war films Remember Pearl Harbor (1942) for Republic as well as being loaned out to 20th Century Fox for The Purple Heart (1944).

Barry was cast as black-clad gunfighter in a 1961 episode, "Last Stop: Oblivion", of the ABC/WB Western series, Maverick with Jack Kelly and fellow guest star Buddy Ebsen, as well as an even larger titular role in a James Garner episode set in New Orleans titled "The Resurrection of Joe November."

In 1966, Barry played Confederate soldier "Lt. Farrow" in the Western film Alvarez Kelly with William Holden and a one-eyed Richard Widmark.

Barry played a supporting role in the 1968 film, Shalako with Sean Connery, as well as in the television series Dragnet.

He appeared in six episodes of Michael Landon's Little House on the Prairie as racist farmer Judd Larrabee,[10] and was a recurring character, Lt. Ray Snedigar, on the 1960s detective show Surfside 6.

In addition to acting, Barry was also a writer, writing the stories upon which the films Red Light (1949) starring George Raft and Virginia Mayo, Train to Tombstone (1950), and Convict Stage (1965) were based, and co-writing the screenplay as well as directing and playing the leading role of Jesse James in Jesse James' Women (1954).

[13] On July 17, 1980, Barry shot himself in the head at his home, shortly after police had left the residence after investigating a domestic dispute.