Barbara Lyon

Barbara Lyon was born on the 9th of September 1931 in Los Angeles, the daughter of Hollywood stars Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels who had begun acting in silent movies but continued successfully in the 1930s. Moving and settling in Britain just before World War II, they developed a comedy routine involving the whole family playing themselves, 45 minutes of fast talking with lots of gags, music and occasional guest stars. Going under the name of Hi Gang, it featured Ben and Bebe and both their children, Barbara and younger brother Richard. In November 1950, this show was transformed into the radio sitcom, Life With The Lyons, and Barbara played the part of a teenager, suffering all the usual traumas in the early 1950s and her catchphrase "I'll die….I'll just die" became nationally famous. The series spun off two feature films, Life With The Lyons and The Lyons In Paris and in 1957, moved from radio to television, the first situation comedy series to do so, but tastes were changing fast end the show was cancelled in 1960. Barbara Lyon was also a singer and got a recording contract with Columbia records after entering a summer show in Blackpool. Her first record was the song Stowaway which hit no.12 in mid 1955, but she only achieved one further hit, Letter To A Soldier at Christmas 1956. Her singing career never matched her achievements on television and radio and in 1956 she was given her own TV series, Dream Time With Barbara but this was very short-lived. Barbara married the show's producer Russell Turner but this did not last. She had various guest appearances on TV shows in the early 1960s, notably on McHales Navy and My Three Sons. Her mother, Bebe died in 1971 and her father Ben returned to the USA, remarrying, but he too died in 1979. Barbara Lyon faded from public life and plagued by ill health, she died aged 63 from a brain haemorrhage on the 10th of July 1995 in a home in Middlesex. ~ Sharon Mawer