Born in Oakland, California to Harry Bradwell and Mary Louise Heath, who would never marry, Barry would grow up in Roseville, California. After graduating from high school, he would join the Roseville Little Theatre Group. He would receive his Equity card while working with the Sacramento Music Circus in 1956 while still in college, before joining the Actor's Workshop in San Francisco. In the early 60s, he would develop a career as a actor and as a singer-dancer in Paris, France, before he started to work in Hollywood, after taking his stepfather's name as his stage name. While he worked in Hollywood, Ford would appear in such films as Von Ryan's Express, Tobruk and Counterpoint and television shows as The Rogues, Combat!, The Rat Patrol and Mannix, including one episode of the 1960s sitco