Born in Ancona, Barnabò made his stage debut in 1921 at the Greek Theatre of Syracuse, with the Annibale Ninchi's company.

[1] Since then he was enrolled by some of the most important stage companies of his time, working among others with Marta Abba, Alda Borelli, Maria Melato, Gino Cervi, Paolo Stoppa.

[1] In 1927 Barnabò made his screen debut in the silent film Beauty of the World, but his film career took off with the sound cinema, when he became one of the most active character actors of the 1930s and the 1940s.

[1] Specialized in good-natured and bourgeois character roles, he is best known as the villain capitalist in Vittorio De Sica's Miracle in Milan.

[1] Barnabò was married to actress Vittorina Benvenuti [it], with whom he often worked in films and on stage.