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When college-hero-handsome Jess Barker was signed by producer Walter Wanger in 1935, he was billed as Philip Barker in such Wanger productions as Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936). He re-emerged as Jess Barker in the early 1940s, heading the casts in a handful of long-forgotten programmers. In Abbott and Costello's The Time of Their Lives (1946)., Barker plays the aristocratic fiance of Marjorie Reynolds. Barker is perhaps best known as the first husband of actress Susan Hayward; their 10-year union produced twin sons, whose custody Susan won after a bitter courtroom battle. His movie career damaged by adverse publicity, Jess Barker worked for a while in radio, then returned to the screen as a character actor in such films as Night Walker (1965).