Ernestine Barrier was an American-born actress of stage, film and television
Background
Her birth name was Ernestine Spratt, but she used the stage name of Ernestine De Becker (after her mother"s maiden name). Descended from an acting family, Barrier made her first stage appearance at the age of roughly six months when she was carried onstage by her mother Nesta De Becker, also an actress.
Career
She was the first actress to play a female president of the United States, in the film Project Moonbase (1953). Barrier acted into her eighties appearing on such television shows as Charlie"s Angels, CHiPs, and The Waltons and the television film A Family Upside Down (1978) with Helen Hayes and Fred Astaire Her feature film appearances include Lust for Life (1956) with Kirk Douglas, and The Bottom of the Bottle (also 1956) with Van Johnson and Joseph Cotton. She is also remembered for her work in the 1930s on Broadway where she appeared under the name Ernestine De Becker in Anton Chekhov"s The Seagull, Jean Giraudoux"s Amphitryon 38, Robert East. Sherwood"s Idiot"s Delight, Shakespeare"s The Taming of the Shrew, and Late One Evening by Audrey and Waveney Carten.