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Samuel Augustus Barnett, the elder son of Francis Augustus Barnett and Mary Gilmore Barnett, was born at 5 Portland Square, Bristol, on 8th February 1844. His father was a wealthy manufacturer of iron bedsteads whereas his mother came from a long-established Bristol merchant family engaged chiefly in overseas shipping.
Barnett was educated at home and in June 1862, he went to Wadham College. He was not considered a very able student and left Oxford University with a second class degree in law and modern history in 1865. His biographer, Seth Koven has pointed out: "He struck contemporaries as a rather ordinary young man, distinguished more by his scraggly beard, balding pate, and dishevelled appearance than by any great promise."
Barnett later claimed that it was a visit to the United States that provided him with his important education. When he returned to England in December 1867 to be a curate at St Mary's Church, Bryanston Square, London, under William Henry Fremantle, he had changed from a strong supporter of the Conservative Party to someone who had a passionate interest in social reform. Barnett's abilities as a worker on behalf of the Marylebone poor became quickly evident during his curacy under Fremantle. During this period he became a close friend of the historian, Arnold Toynbee.
Barnett also became friends with the housing reformer Octavia Hill. Barnett later told Beatrice Potter: "Mr Barnett told me much about Octavia Hill. How, when he met her as a young curate just come to London, she had opened the whole world to him. A cultivated mind, susceptible to art, with a deep enthusiasm and faith, and a love of power. This she undoubtedly has and shows it in her age in a despotic temper... I remember her well in the zenith of her fame; some 14 years ago."
On 28th January, 1873, Barnett married Henrietta Weston. Soon afterwards Barnett and his young wife moved to St Jude's, a parish in Whitechapel. Inspired by the teachings of Frederick Denison Maurice on Christian Socialism, they campaigned against the 1834 Poor Law and advocated what they called "practical socialism". This included a "combination of individual initiative and self-improvement with municipal and state support intended to address specific material needs". They also promoted the aesthetic theories of John Ruskin, and argued that "pictures … could take the place of parables".
Seth Koven has argued that while living in Whitechapel: "Barnett developed an extensive network of clubs and classes to address not only the spiritual but the intellectual and recreative needs of his parishioners. The unpopularity of these ventures encouraged him to think of an alternative non-parochial institutional framework for his work." Barnett was deeply influenced by the pamphlet about slum life The Bitter Cry of Outcast London (1883), written by Andrew Mearns, a Congregationalist clergyman.
In 1884 an article by Barnett in the Nineteenth Century Magazine he suggested the idea of university settlements. The idea was to create a place where students from Oxford University and Cambridge University could work among, and improve the lives of the poor during their holidays. According to Barnett, the role of the students was "to learn as much as to teach; to receive as much to give". This article resulted in the formation of the University Settlements Association.
Later that year Barnett and his wife established Toynbee Hall, Britain's first university settlement. Most residents held down jobs in the City, or were doing vocational training, and so gave up their weekends and evenings to do relief work. This work ranged from visiting the poor and providing free legal aid to running clubs for boys and holding University Extension lectures and debates; the work was not just about helping people practically, it was also about giving them the kinds of things that people in richer areas took for granted, such as the opportunity to continue their education past the school leaving age.
Toynbee Hall served as a base for Charles Booth and his group of researchers working on the Life and Labour of the People in London. Other individuals who worked at Toynbee Hall include Richard Tawney, Clement Attlee, Alfred Milner, William Beveridge, Hubert Llewellyn-Smith and Robert Morant. Other visitors included Guglielmo Marconi who held one of his earliest experiments in radio there, and Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, was so impressed by the mixing and working together of so many people from different nations that it inspired him to establish the games. Georges Clemenceau visited Toynbee Hall in 1884 and claimed that Barnett was one of the "three really great men" he had met in England.
Octavia Hill, was one of those who did not support the idea of Toynbee Hall. According to Seth Koven: "Octavia Hill, his erstwhile mentor, was so disturbed by what she viewed as Barnett's lax churchmanship that she supported a rival plan undertaken on an explicitly religious basis by the high-church party of Keble College, the Oxford House settlement in Bethnal Green."
Samuel Barnett and his wife stayed with Beatrice Potter in August 1887. In her diary she wrote: "Visit of three days from the Barnetts, which has confirmed my friendship with them. Mr Barnett distinguished for unself-consciousness, humility and faith. Intellectually he is suggestive, with a sort of moral insight almost like that of a woman. And in another respect he is like a strong woman; he is much more anxious that human nature should feel rightly than that they should think truly, being is more important with him than doing... He was very sympathetic about my work and anxious to be helpful. But evidently he foresaw in it dangers to my character, and it was curious to watch the minister's anxiety about the morale of his friend creep out in all kinds of hints.... He told his wife that I reminded him of Octavia Hill, and as he described Miss Hill's life as one of isolation from superiors and from inferiors, it is clear what rocks he saw ahead."
Beatrice also had strong opinions about Henrietta Barnett: "Mrs Barnett is an active-minded, true and warm-hearted woman. She is conceited. She would be objectionably conceited if it were not for her genuine belief in her husband's superiority... But the good in Mrs Barnett predominates... Her personal aim in life is to raise womanhood to its rightful position; as equal, though unlike, to manhood. The crusade she has undertaken is the fight against impurity as the main factor in debasing women from a status of independence to one of physical dependence. The common opinion that a woman is a nonentity unless joined to a man, she resents as a blasphemy. Like all crusaders, she is bigoted and does not recognize all the facts that tell against her faith. I told her that the only way in which we can convince the world of our power is to show it! And for that it will be needful for women with strong natures to remain celibate, so that the special force of womanhood, motherly feeling, may be forced into public work."
Christopher J. Morley has pointed out: "He (Samuel Augustus Barnett) used music, nonbiblical readings and art to teach those with no education or religious leanings.... Barnett wrote frequently to the press about the conditions in the East End, among his many complaints and suggestions were that street lighting and sanitation should be improved, the poor should treat their womenfolk better and that women should be stopped from stripping to the waist for fights. He also wanted the slaughterhouses removed because of the brutalizing effect it was having on the locals health and morals."

Samuel and Henrietta Barnett had a very happy marriage. She later recalled: "His (Samuel Barnett) temper was naturally of the sweetest, yet he was often surprisingly censorious. His sympathy was both imaginative and subtle, and yet he would harden his heart against the most piteous evidences of poverty, if his economic principles were involved. His generosity in big matters was sometimes reckless, and yet his parsimony in small ones could be both comic and annoying. His patience was part of his religious dependence on God, and yet it was united to restless ruthless energy for reform. His trust in human nature was all-embracing, yet no one investigated the statements of applicants more searchingly." Beatrice Webb saw the Barnetts as "an early example of a new type of human personality, in after years not uncommon; a double-star-personality, the light of the one being indistinguishable from that of the other".
Barnett and his wife set out their ideas in the book, Practicable Socialism: Essays on Social Reform (1888). The couple described in detail the poverty they had witnessed in Whitechapel. They concluded the problem was being caused by low wages: "The body's needs are the most exacting; they make themselves felt with daily recurring persistency, and, while they remain unsatisfied, it is hard to give time or thought to the mental needs or the spiritual requirements; but if our nation is to be wise and righteous, as well as healthy and strong, they must be considered. A fair wage must allow a man, not only to adequately feed himself and his family, but also to provide the means of mental cultivation and spiritual development."
The authors rejected the idea that alcohol consumption was the main cause of poverty: "The teetotallers would reply that drink was the cause, but against this sweeping assertion I should like to give my testimony, and it has been my privilege to live in close friendship and neighbourhood of the working classes for nearly half my life. Much has been said about the drinking habits of the poor, and the rich have too often sheltered themselves from the recognition of the duties which their wealth has imposed on them, by the declaration that the poor are unhelpable while they drink as they do. But the working classes, as a rule, do not drink. There are, undoubtedly, thousands of men, and, alas! unhappy women too, who seek the pleasure, or the oblivion, to be obtained by alcohol; but drunkenness is not the rule among the working classes, and, while honouring the work of the teetotallers, who give themselves up to the reclamation of the drunken, I cannot agree with them in their answer to the question. Drink is not the main cause why the national defence to be found in robust health is in such a defective condition."
The Barnett's were concerned that low wages was forcing people to resort to criminal activity. They also warned about the dangers of revolution: "By the growing animosity of the poor against the rich. Goodwill among men is a source of prosperity as well as of peace. Those who are thus bound together consider one another's interests, and put the good of the whole before the good of a class. Among large classes of the poor animosity is slowly taking the place of good-will, the rich are held to be of another nation, the theft of a lady's diamonds is not always condemned as the theft of a poor man's money."
The authors of Practicable Socialism: Essays on Social Reform advised that Christian Socialists should help the poor to form trade unions. They were especially concerned about those employed as dockers: "It would be wise to promote the organisation of un-skilled labour. The mass of applicants last winter belonged to this class, and in one report it is distinctly said that the greater number were born within the demoralising influence of the intermittent and irregular employment given by the Dock Companies, and who have never been able to rise above their circumstances... If, by some encouragement, these men could be induced to form a union, and if by some pressure the Docks could be induced to employ a regular gang, much would be gained. The very organisation would be a lesson to these men in self-restraint and in fellowship. The substitution of regular hands at the Docks for those who now, by waiting and scrambling, get a daily ticket would give to a large number of men the help of settled employment and take away the dependence on chance which makes many careless."
In 1888 Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr visited Toynbee Hall. Addams later wrote: "It is a community for University men who live there, have their recreation and clubs and society all among the poor people, yet in the same style they would live in their own circle. It is so free from professional doing good, so unaffectedly sincere and so productive of good results in its classes and libraries so that it seems perfectly ideal." The women were so impressed with what they saw that the returned to the United States and established a similar project, Hull House, in Chicago. The Settlement Movement grew rapidly both in Britain, the United States and the rest of the world. The settlements and social action centres work together through the International Federation of Settlements.
Barnett's connections with Whitechapel lasted throughout his life, though he resigned St Jude's in 1893 to serve as a canon of Bristol. However, he continued to work as Warden of Toynbee Hall until 1906 when he took up his post as canon of Westminster. Barnett was also a strong supporter of the Workers' Educational Association, old-age pensions, and labour farm colonies and helped to establish the Whitechapel Gallery. Books by Barnett included Religion and Progress (1907), Lectures on Poverty (1908), Towards Social Reform (1909), Religion and Politics (1911) and Worship and Work (1913).
Samuel Barnett died at 69 Kings Esplanade, Hove, on 17th June 1913. The funeral service took place on 21st June at St Jude's and he was buried at St Helen's Church in Hangleton.
His (Samuel Barnett) temper was naturally of the sweetest, yet he was often surprisingly censorious. His trust in human nature was all-embracing, yet no one investigated the statements of applicants more searchingly.
Mr Barnett told me much about Octavia Hill. I remember her well in the zenith of her fame; some 14 years ago. I remember her dining with us in Prince's Gate, I remember thinking her a sort of ideal of the attraction of woman's power. At that time she was constantly attended by Edward Bond. Alas! for we poor women! Even our strong minds do not save us from tender feelings. Companionship, which meant to him intellectual and moral enlightenment, meant to her "Love". This, one fatal day, she told him. Let us draw the curtain tenderly before that scene and inquire no further. She left England for two years' ill health. She came back a changed woman.... She is still a great force in the world of philanthropic action, and as a great leader of woman's work she assuredly takes the first place. But she might have been more, if she had lived with her peers and accepted her sorrow as a great discipline.
Visit of three days from the Barnetts, which has confirmed my friendship with them. Mr Barnett distinguished for unselfconsciousness, humility and faith. But evidently he foresaw in it dangers to my character, and it was curious to watch the minister's anxiety about the morale of his friend creep out in all kinds of hints. He held up as a moral scarecrow the "Oxford Don", the man or woman without human ties, and with no care for the details of life. He told his wife that I reminded him of Octavia Hill, and as he described Miss Hill's life as one of isolation from superiors and from inferiors, it is clear what rocks he saw ahead....
Mrs Barnett is an active-minded, true and warm-hearted woman. The common opinion that a woman is a nonentity unless joined to a man, she resents as a "blasphemy". I told her that the only way in which we can convince the world of our power is to show it! And for that it will be needful for women with strong natures to remain celibate, so that the special force of womanhood, motherly feeling, may be forced into public work.
A week staying with the Courtneys. It is delightful to watch their happiness. Success has made Leonard more cordial and open-minded. As chairman of committees all the finest points of his character are brought into play, and his deficiencies are not seen.... Kate has become the wife of Leonard Courtney. She basks in the sunshine of happiness. Her life is a purely social one and not demanding much self-sacrifice or self-devotion.... She has lived a good deal apart from her family but since her happy and successful marriage she has always tried to welcome them, though she has been unwilling to take more than her share of family duty, and perhaps even to shirk this. She is benevolent and worldly, a good citizen of the world but not a heroine.
It is useless to imagine that the nation is wealthier because in one column of the newspaper we read an account of a sumptuous ball or of the luxury of a City dinner, if in another column there is a story of death from starvation. It is folly, and worse than folly, to say that our nation is religious because we meet her thousands streaming out of the fashionable churches, so long as workhouse schools and institutions are the only homes open to her orphan children and homeless waifs. The nation does not consist of one class only; the nation is the whole, the wealthy and the wise, the poor and the ignorant. Statistics, however flattering, do not tell the whole truth about increased national prosperity, or about progress in development, if there is a pauper class constantly increasing, or a criminal class gaining its recruits from the victims of poverty.
The nation, like the individual, is set in the midst of many and great dangers, and, after the need of education and religion has been allowed, it will be agreed that all other defences are vain if it be impossible for the men and women and children of our vast city population to reach the normal standard of robustness. The question then arises. Why cannot and does not each man, woman, and child attain to the normal standard of robustness?
The teetotallers would reply that drink was the cause, but against this sweeping assertion I should like to give my testimony, and it has been my privilege to live in close friendship and neighbourhood of the working classes for nearly half my life. Drink is not the main cause why the national defence to be found in robust health is in such a defective condition.
Land reformers, socialists, co-operators, democrats would, in their turn, each provide an answer to our question; but, if examined, the root of each would be the same - in one word, it is Poverty, and this means scarcity of food.
Let us now go into the kitchen and try and provide, with such knowledge as dietetic science has given us, for a healthily hungry family of eight children and father and mother. We must calculate that the man requires 20 oz. of solid food per day, i.e. 16 oz. of carbonaceous or strength-giving food and 4 oz. of nitrogenous or flesh-forming food. (The army regulations allow 25 oz. a day, and our soldiers are recently declared on high authority to be underfed.) The woman should eat 12 oz. of carbonaceous and 3 oz. of nitrogenous food; though if she is doing much rough, hard work, such as all the cooking, cleaning, washing of a family of eight children necessitate, she would probably need another ounce per day of the flesh-repairing food. For the children, whose ages may vary from four to thirteen, it would be as well to estimate that they would each require 8 oz. of carbonaceous and 2 oz. of nitrogenous food per day: in all, 92 oz. of carbonaceous and 28 oz. of nitrogenous foods per day.
For the breakfast of the family we will provide oatmeal porridge with a pennyworth of treacle and another penny-worth of tinned milk. For dinner they can have Irish stew, with 1 lb. of meat among the ten, a pennyworth of rice, and an addition of two pennyworth of bread to obtain the necessary quantity of strength-giving nutriment. For tea we can manage coffee and bread, but with no butter, and not even sugar for the children; and yet, simple fare as this is, it will have cost 2s. 5d. to feed the whole family, and to obtain for them a sufficient quantity of strength-giving food; and even at this expenditure they have not been able to get that amount of nitrogenous food which is necessary for the maintenance of robust health.
Take Mrs. Marshall's family and circumstances. Mrs. Marshall is, to all intents and purposes, a widow, her husband being in an asylum. She herself is a superior woman, tall and handsome, and with clean dapper ways and a slight hardness of manner that comes from bitter disappointment and hopeless struggling. She has four children, two of whom have been taken by the Poor Law authorities into their district schools - a better plan than giving outdoor relief, but, at the same time, one that has the disadvantage of removing the little ones from the home influence of a very good mother.
Mrs. Marshall herself, after vainly trying to get work, was taken as a scrubber at a public institution, where she earns 9s. a week and her dinner. She works from six in the morning till five at night, and then returns to her fireless, cheerless room to find her two children back from school and ready for their chief meal ; for during her absence their breakfast and dinner can only have consisted of bread and cold scraps. We will not dwell on the hardship of having to turn to and light the fire, tidy the room, and prepare the meal after having already done ten hours' scrubbing or washing....
The body's needs are the most exacting; they make themselves felt with daily recurring persistency, and, while they remain unsatisfied, it is hard to give time or thought to the mental needs or the spiritual requirements; but if our nation is to be wise and righteous, as well as healthy and strong, they must be considered. A fair wage must allow a man, not only to adequately feed himself and his family, but also to provide the means of mental cultivation and spiritual development. Indeed, some humanitarians assert that it should be sufficient to give him a home wherein he may rest from noise, with books, pictures, and society; and there are those who go so far as to suggest that it should be sufficient to enable him to learn the larger lessons which travellers gain from other nations, as well as the teaching which the great dumb teachers wait to impart to those with ears to hear of fraternity, purity, and eternal hope.
Why is it that our wage-earners cannot get this ? Why is it that, as we indulge in such dreams, they sound impossible and almost impracticable, though no reader of this review will add undesirable? Is it because our nation has not fought ignorance with pointed weapons, and by its knights of proved prowess and valour? Or is it because our rulers have not recognised the greed of certain classes or individuals as a national evil, and struggled against it with the strength of unity? It cannot be the want of money in our land which causes so many to be half-fed, and cry silently from want of strength to make a noise. As we stand at Hyde Park Comer, or wander in among the miles of streets of gentlemen's residences in the West End, our hearts are gladdened at the sight of the wealth that is in our land; but they would be glad with a deeper gladness if Wilkins was not getting slowly brutalised by his struggle, if there were a chance of Alice and Johnnie Marshall growing up as Nature meant them to grow, or if clever Mrs. Stoneman's patient efforts could be crowned with success. Money in plenty is in our midst, but cruel, blinding Poverty keeps her company, and our nation cannot boast herself of her wealth while half her people are but partly fed, and too poor to use their minds or to aspire after holiness...
Some economists will reply that these sad conditions are but the result of our freedom; that the boasted liberty in our land must result in the few strong making themselves stronger, and in the many weak suffering from their weakness. But is this necessarily so? Is this the only result to be expected from human beings having the power to act as they please? Are not love, goodwill, and social instincts as truly parts of human character as greed, selfishness, and sulkiness; and may we not believe that human nature is great enough to care to use its freedom for the good of all? Men have done noble things to obtain this freedom. They have loved her with the ardour of a lover's love, with the patience of a silver wedded life; and now that they have her, is she only to be used to injure the weak, and to make life cruel and almost impossible to the large majority? What is the right use of freedom? The ancient answer was, To love God. And can we love God whom we have not seen when we love not our brother whom we have seen?
Poverty in London is increasing both relatively and actually. Relative poverty may be lightly considered, but it breeds trouble as rapidly as actual poverty. The family which has an income sufficient to support life on oatmeal will not grow in goodwill when they know that daily meat and holidays are spoken of as necessaries for other workers and children. Education and the spread of literature have raised the standard of living, and they who cannot provide boots for their children, nor sufficient fresh air, nor clean clothes, nor means of pleasure, feel themselves to be poor, and have the hopelessness which is the curse of poverty as selfishness is the curse of wealth.
Poverty, however, in East London is increasing actually. It is increased (1) by the number of incapables: broken men, who by their misfortunes or their vices have fallen out of regular work and who are drawn to East London because chance work is more plentiful, company more possible, and life more enlivened by excitement. (2) By the deterioration of the physique of those born in close rooms, brought up in narrow streets, and early made familiar with vice. It was noticed that among the crowds who applied for relief there were few who seemed healthy or were strongly grown. In Whitechapel the foreman of those employed in the streets reported that the majority had not the stamina to make even a good scavenger.' (3) By the disrepute into which saving is fallen. Partly because happiness (as the majority count happiness) seems to be beyond their reach, partly because the teaching of the example of the well-to-do is enjoy yourselves, and partly because "the saving man" seems bad company, unsocial and selfish; the fact remains that few take the trouble to save — only units out of the thousands of applicants had shown any signs of thrift. (4) By the growing animosity of the poor against the rich. Among large classes of the poor animosity is slowly taking the place of good-will, the rich are held to be of another nation, the theft of a lady's diamonds is not always condemned as the theft of a poor man's
money.
It would be wise to promote the organisation of un-skilled labour. The substitution of regular hands at the Docks for those who now, by waiting and scrambling, get a daily ticket would give to a large number of men the help of settled employment and take away the dependence on chance which makes many careless.... A possible loss of profit is not comparable to an actual loss of life, and the labourers do lose life and more than life that the dividend or salaries may be increased.
Samuel Barnett (1831 - 1885)
From Ancestry.com - The late Samuel Barnett one of Champaign County's best known and most substantial farmers' who died on January 28, 1917 was a native son of Ohio and had lived in this state all his life. He was born on a pioneer farm in Butler County, October 4, 1831, son of Samuel and Mary Mitchell Barnett both of whom were born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and whose last days were spent in Springfield this state (Ohio). The elder Samuel Barnett was a miller as well as a farmer and when he moved with his family from Butler County to Springfield in 1841, in order that his children might there received the advantage of better schools, he erected a mill and engaged in the milling business. The Barnett Mills soon becoming known far and wide over the state. He died at Springfield at the age of seventy eight years and his son William A. Barnett for many years continued the milling industry. The business being conducted under the firm name of Warder and Barnett. The elder Samuel Barnett's wife had preceded him to the grave, her death having occurred when she was sixty-two years of age. They were earnest members of the United Presbyterian Church and were long regarded as among the leaders of the congregation with which they were affiliated. They were the parents of ten children, six sons and four daughters, all of whom grew to maturity and five of whom were present at a family reunion held in 1901. The younger Samuel Barnett was nine years of age when his parents moved from Butler County to Springfield and in that city he grew to manhood receiving his schooling in the public schools. Upon leaving school he was employed in his father's mill until his marriage in 1856 when he came to this county and established his home on a farm in section 34 of Union Township and there with the exception of one year spent in Urbana 1865 and one year spent in Springfield 1866 he lived until 1900 when the family moved to Urbana. Mr. Barnett carried on a dairy business in connection with his general farming and did very well becoming the owner of a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres. Mr. Barnett and his wife were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Urbana and for many years he was one of the elders of that congregation both taking an earnest interest in church work. Mr. Barnett died at Miami, Florida, where he had gone to spend the latter part of the winter 01/28/1917. Mrs. Barnett died on 01/13/1885. It was on October 11, 1855, that Samuel Barnett was united in marriage to Mary Campbell who was born in Belmont County, Ohio, October 26, 1831, a daughter of Jesse Campbell and wife who became pioneers of Champaign County and to that union were born five children, four of who John C, Carrie B., Mary Lillian and Laura L. are living and one a daughter Fannie who died at the age of eight months, Miss Carrie B. Barnett was graduated from the Cook County Illinois Hospital Training School for nurses at Chicago in 1893 and was a for a few years superintendent of the Mitchell Thompson Hospital at Springfield. Laura L. Barnett was married to James S. Ewing on April 19, 1912. John C. Barnett who was born in 1856 and who for twenty two years was editor of the Farm and Fireside, a semi-monthly agricultural journal of national circulation published at Springfield and who returned to the old home farm in 1910 and married Essie Christian of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has one child, a son, Alan Barnett, born in 1892, who is now an officer in the United States Navy. Source: History of Champaign County, Ohio: It's People, Industries, Volume 2.
1850 United States Census, Oxford, Butler, Ohio, Samuel Barnett, age 18, birth year abt. 1832, birthplace Ohio, male, household members: Levi Barnett age 25, Samuel Barnett age 18.
1860 United States Census, Union, Champaign, Ohio, Samuel Barnett, age 31, birth year abt. 1829, male birthplace Ohio, occupation: farmer, household members: Samuel, Mary, John, Jessie, Barnett and David Campbell.
1870 United States Census, Union Champaign, Ohio, Samuel Barnet (Barnett), age 39, birth year abt. 1831, birthplace Ohio, white, male, occupation: farmer, household members: Laura, Mary, Samuel, John C., Carrie B., and Mary L. Barnett.
1880 United States Census, Union, Champaign, Ohio, Samuel Barnett, age 49, birth date abt. 1831, birthplace Ohio, white, male, married, spouse's name Mary Barnett, Father's birthplace Pennsylvania, Mother's birthplace Pennsylvania, occupation: farmer, household members: Samuel, Mary, John C., Carrie B., Mary L. and Laura L. Barnett.
1900 United States Census, Union, Champaign, Ohio, Samuel Barnett, age 68, birth date 10/1831, birthplace Ohio, white, male, head, widowed, Father's birthplace Pennsylvania, Mother's birthplace Pennsylvania, occupation: farmer, household members: Samuel Barnett, Lillian M. Barnett, Laura R. Barnett, Jennie McKinney.
1910 United States Census, Urbana Ward 2, Champaign, Ohio, Samuel Barnette (Barnett), age 78, birth year abt. 1832, birthplace Ohio, white, male, head, widowed, Father's birthplace Pennsylvania, Mother's birthplace Pennsylvania, household members: Samuel Barnett age 78, Carrie B. Barnett age 49, Mary L. Barnett age 47, Sarah L. Barnett age 44, John Carrysill age 80.
North America, Family Histories, Samuel Barnett, male, birth date 10/4/1831, death date 01/13/1885 (this is Mary Campbell Barnett's death date. Father: Samuel Barnett, Mother: Mary Mitchell, spouse: Mary Campbell.
Samuel Barnett&rsquos Net worth
Samuel Barnett earns a good amount of money from his career as an actor. As per some online sources, he has an estimated net worth not less than $1 million, however, the amount is still under review.
As per some online sources, the average salary for Broadway actor is $1,754 to $1,861. He has played several iconic roles in a number of movies, television series, as well as theaters.
Barnett&rsquos movies which made a good collection at the box office include:
Movie | Budget | Box office collection | IMDB rating | Cast member |
Bright Star (2009) | $8.5 million | $14.4 million | 3.5 | Ben Whishaw Abbie Cornish Paul Schneider Kerry Fox |
Jupiter Ascending (2015) | US$176 million | US$184 million | 5.3 | Channing Tatum Mila Kunis Sean Bean Eddie Redmayne |
The Lady in the Van (2015) | $6 million | $41.1 million | 6.7 | Maggie Smith Alex Jennings Jim Broadbent Frances de la Tour |
Sam Barnett: Advocate
Photo by Faye Thomas
C OVID imploded the world. It affects each of us differently. For Samuel Barnett, his father died from it.
Sam’s dad was sixty-six years old and died on the first of April. He would have turned sixty-seven on the twenty-fifth of April, also Sam’s fortieth birthday.
“It’s been a huge life lesson both on a micro and macro level,” laments Sam from lockdown in his Nottingham flat that he shares with his partner of nearly nine years, Adam. COVID hit while Sam was in London having first day of rehearsals of a new play, The Southbury Child, by Stephen Beresford, who wrote the stirring and gripping film, Pride. Though Samuel maintains a place in London, he frightfully boarded a train and traveled north so he could spend lockdown days with Adam.
“Grief comes in waves…” contends Sam, speaking on Zoom with headphones from the spare room that he calls “my magical duvet fort,” due to its contents of five duvets and two clothes rails. The area also includes audio and recording equipment that he uses for voiceover work. Recently, he voiced a character for The Prince, an animation sitcom for HBO, created by Gary Janetti (Will & Grace, Family Guy, Vicious).
“My father and I had difficult times but we eventually became friends, as well as father and son. It was great because I was already friends with my mum,” explains Sam. “The divorce at age nine interrupted my relationship with my dad.” He pauses and takes a breath. “He’s a role model, and in the past few weeks, already, I’ve absolutely, cliché cliché, found myself saying, ‘What would Dad do? Would Dad be proud of me in this moment?’”
Since his father died early in COVID, Sam was only focused on him. He was in the hospital but Sam couldn’t see him. Two weeks after he died, his family had a small service of six people, social distancing. “The day after that I joined everybody else in lockdown,” says Sam. “I then fully became aware of it. I said, ‘What the fuck?? Are we in lockdown. ’ It was like Day One for me.” Sam didn’t know how to react and he paced like a caged animal.
Lockdown was two-sided for him. It was good to have the space to grieve where he didn’t have to engage in every day life. On the other hand, he couldn’t see his father in the hospital. There was no proper funeral. There was no hugging. “With COVID, there’s no touching. It’s horrible,” winces Sam, adjusting his large clear-framed Burberry glasses. He says, though, that by being with Adam he feels supported through “being heard and being held.”
An avid supporter of Broadway Cares and TheatreMAD (Make A Difference Trust), Sam first connected with the organizations when he originated the role of Posner in The History Boys in the West End (2004), and subsequently on Broadway (2006). The actor was nominated for several awards for his performance, the Laurence Olivier and the Tony, and won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play. Sam went on to star in the critically acclaimed film, as well.
From there, Sam chalked up credits in more stage productions, television, and film. One of his recent projects was starring as the chatty eccentric eponymous spiffy-clad lad in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Elijah Wood costars with an ensemble cast in Netflix’s wildly popular series. It ran for two seasons and was supposed to run a third but there were internal conflicts. Fans pitched a petition that garnered over 100,000 signatures. Unfortunately, Season Three never materialized.
Richard III castmates Mark Rylance, Stephen Fry and Sam Barnett help raise funds at Red Bucket Follies, benefiting Broadway Cares. Photo by Daniel T. Gramkee
Sam sank his acting chops into other performances such as portraying Renfield in Penny Dreadful, John Everett Millais in Desperate Romantics, the second U.S. President’s son in John Adams, and in Jane Campion’s nineteenth-century period piece, Bright Star. In July 2012 through February 2014, he donned an outrageous ruffled collar and extravagant bejeweled-beaded gown to play Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, an all-male production, both in the West End and on Broadway, alongside Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry. (It was double-billed with Twelfth Night.) The cast raised over $116,000 that year for Broadway Cares, and the three actors were a part of their annual Red Bucket Follies (formerly, Gypsy of the Year).
The versatile actor was raised in a North Yorkshire town called Whitby, a wee fishing village in Northeast England, where during the eighties, there was no AIDS awareness.
It was tough to be gay in a small burg, so much so that he was burdened with shame for many years. When it came to HIV, he was filled with fear. There was no education about this disease in the town’s school system.
“Growing up then, AIDS was [considered] a death sentence,” he voices flatly. “The campaigns back then bolstered an illustration of a gravestone.” Sam makes a cringe-y face. At the time, the teen didn’t know if he was gay, but he knew he “wasn’t like the others.” His mum told him he was gay when Sam was thirteen, so there was no negativity in his household, though he still suffered from feeling “othered” at school.
“I carried so much shame,” recounts Sam in a leaden tone. “At that time, gay wasn’t even a ‘slur’ yet. It just was never talked about. I was lucky that I never got bullied.” Being the beaming actor in the school musicals seemed to protect him from that. “Singing and dancing is one of the things that saved my soul as a kid,” he says.
Sam offers that the shame extended to masturbation, as well. “I hated myself every time I did it, because I associated it with something being dangerous. Nature-Nurture. And since my fantasies were around guys, that was terribly shameful for me. It caused me so much emotional upheaval.” He cocks his head, gently lays a few fingers on his forehead, then sweeps them through his brown thick tuft of hair.
For Sam, “gay” didn’t exist in Whitby. He was only exposed to gay-themed television dramas where the gay character was always the evil one or was doomed and died of AIDS. “I’m so boringly traditional in a way, too,” he states pursing his lips, “that even watching [the groundbreaking series], Queer As Folk, absolutely terrified me!”
At seventeen, Sam acquired his first boyfriend. At eighteen, they moved to London together. One afternoon, they eagerly stood in a queue to purchase matinee tickets for ten pounds to see the musical Rent. “It changed my life!” he proclaims jubilantly. “I was completely stunned.” Sam saw Rent four times, sitting in the front row each time.
Elijah Wood and Sam Barnett in DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY. Photo by Bettina Strauss/BBCA
“Rent massively touched me, Dann!” He breaks. Sam’s bright face faintly alters. “It slightly scared me,” he notes. “Here were these people living with AIDS, dying from it, learning to love themselves through it. It did all that in a musical.” He looks off, displaying his profile, behind him exposing two framed nondescript black-and-white photographs hanging on the wall.
“It took Rent to fully impact me and touch me about this epidemic.” Sam appends that when he discovered the playwright, Jonathan Larsen, died the night before the premiere of his musical, Sam went berserk-o.
“That playwright made me see that HIV was something you could live with…. There was so much hope in that musical. For me, growing up in the eighties, AIDS was inextricably linked with being gay and death. That musical made me see that not only could one live being gay or HIV-positive, but you could…thrive!” Sam vocalizes the last word as if rehearsing a note from the stage at Prince Albert Hall.” Sam brushes lint off his plain light blue T-shirt then puts his chin in the palm of his hand, concluding, “Yes, yes. Rent had quite a profound affect on me….” For a few moments, his soft azure eyes glaze over and jettison back to that time.
First meeting a person living with HIV had another profund effect on Sam. Jonny was twenty-two, and a friend of his partner’s. “All the negative stuff that built up in my head over my teen years, just crumpled instantly. It all became just…matter-of-fact.” Sam’s built-up fright was instantly shattered, and he realized, “It’s just an illness. It’s not all this stigma,” he balks, countering, “The virus is not even active in Jonny’s body right now. HIV is a manageable condition.” Then Sam straight away reassures, “And I don’t mean to belittle it in any way.” He tenderly teethes on his thumb, annoyingly questioning at that time, “So, what was all that shit I was brought up with in the media?! It has nothing to do with the reality of what I am seeing here with Jonny.”
After meeting Jonny, Sam began to educate himself more about the disease and the epidemic. He chose to learn through art, rather than reading and researching. Rent had started his eye-opening journey and he followed that up by seeing Angels in America, The Normal Heart, and others. He even performed scenes from The Normal Heart in acting class.
Barnett as Dirk. Photo by Bettina Strauss/BBCA
“Meeting Jonny, I experienced the human side and the humanity of HIV. I also realized that I had not always been careful,” confesses Sam. “I had no sense of [safety] even though it was drummed into me. We were only taught not to get a girl pregnant. I remember even saying, ‘Well, I don’t need to wear condoms, because no one is going to get pregnant!’ I never took seriously the need for protection. I certainly remember using condoms, but in the back of my mind it wasn’t at all about STDs.” He ponders then adds, “I wasn’t careful. It was potluck. I was totally ignorant about it.”
While attending The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) the shame that Sam acquired in his teens was still powerfully evident. Though he had some one-night stands, he divulges, “I wasn’t good at it. I wanted emotional connection.” This was a painful time for him as he was trying to meet one need by substituting it for something else having sex with others to smooth out the shame. It didn’t work.
“It was the wrong pathway for me, though it took years to learn this,” he clarifies, giving a hardy shout-out for psychotherapy, which has healed and advanced his life.
During college, even getting HIV tested for the first time was motivated by shame. Every time he’d have sex with a guy, Sam felt he’d be punished in some way. “I was sure there would be something wrong,” he says. “I don’t know where that message came from.” Sam’s brows crunch and his inquisitive eyes avert on his boyish face as he wonders.
Sam was not brought up religious and he reasons that the shame is due to small-town mentality. “When you’re a child, you are herded into these holding pens called schools, and you desperately want to fit in. It’s a natural tribal element to feel that. It’s a human condition to want to be accepted. I felt like I did not look like any of those other boys, and it created such a split in myself——a sense of shame. I could have thought, ‘Well, we’re all different.’ But for me there was no concept like that.
“I just didn’t fit in,” Sam harrumphs. “This was all hardwired into me, setting me up for feeling wrong. It’s taken years of therapy to undo it.” Thankfully, during his high school years, Sam found his tribe through the school’s drama department—and was good at the performing arts. His mum was supportive, and he found joy in his theater friendships.
“Every proper relationship I’ve had, HIV has come up really quickly,” Sam confides, scratching his head. Indeed, soon after his initial HIV test, Sam fell in love and partnered up for eight years with Martin, eight years his senior. He learned more about HIV prevention through him, since he had been on the gay scene longer. “Martin had really lived. I felt sheltered. He was quite educated and taught me to be [sexually] personally responsible. From that point on I never took any more risks, got tested frequently, so I always knew my status.”
When Sam and Adam met through mutual theater friends, they quickly broached the HIV topic. Sam had recently been tested, but Adam decided to do so too. “Testing is a really loving thing to do together,” he tenderly insists, shoehorning, “if you want a relationship to have legs, you both should get tested. That way you know exactly where you both stand.”
All of a sudden, Sam chuckles. “I’m going to sound like a wanker now.” He takes a beat and I hear rustling. “I have Adam under my table.” I giggle then Sam explains that Adam is retrieving his laptop.
When Sam has a jolly good laugh, two forehead veins become visibly pronounced. All during our time together, Sam is forthright, authentic, smart, spirited, gracious, and yes, gentle.
During this grieving gestation, Sam is learning a lot about himself through his dad’s death. “I see comparisons between him and me more, especially when it comes to giving to others.” Sam’s dad was a teacher and also ran a food bank. “He spent his entire life helping individuals,” declares Sam, who had no idea how much until he and his family put his obit on Facebook. Almost immediately tributes flooded in, nearly 500 of them. Some comments, “Your dad helped me with…” “He did such and such for me…” Sam was aghast. “I had no idea about any of this!” He shifts, extending his full hand around throat, elbow propped on table, keeping that position as he continues.
“My dad gave us such a sense of fairness. He never understood why some people have it all and others have nothing. He always tried to balance the scales,” expresses Sam. “That food bank, I know, he transformed it because it was struggling. Today it’s prospering.”
Sam stops and recalls. “I remember being with him sometimes. He’d get a text from the food bank and say [to me], ‘Right. Get in the car. We’re delivering food to a family who needs it…now.’ We’d go! I’m driven by his willingness just to be there and to help someone. If a charity comes knocking, I’m there. I say, ‘What can I do, what can I do?’”
Indeed, Sam radiates his father’s spirit. In the first mid-decade of the new century, when he was appearing on The Great White Way, Sam become involved with Broadway Cares, as many actors do. It’s almost a rite of passage and a secret society all at once.
“I loved the feeling of being a part of that,” boosts Sam, with fervent compassion. “I got a history lesson about the beginning of AIDS, the developing years, and some of the talented artists we lost. It was the first experience I had of such a wide theatrical community coming together,” elates Sam, his first time to the Big Apple. “It was fantastic to honor that history and to honor their memory.” He shouts in bewilderment, slowly underscoring each word: The… AIDS… crisis… decimated… communities… there!”
Sam’s also involved with Just Like Us, a UK countrywide organization that invites LGBTQ+ mentors to talk about and share their experiences with students. Sam wholeheartedly wishes they had had this program when he was growing up! “These mentors represent our community as normal and fuck any of you who don’t think it is, and fuck the bullies too,” he harkens with a vengeance. Just Like Us mentors these kids until they graduate and continue to support them in the workforce, because many people go back into the closet once they are out of school.
Just Like Us celebrates School Diversity Week, which is now government-backed, that celebrates LGBTQ+ students all over the country. According to Sam, last year 1,200 schools joined in, which brings the total to about 1.5 million students.
“But where I am from…” Sam states, “North Yorkshire—which is a big county—there was one school.” His register lowers disappointedly. What did he do about that? He approached his old school, telling them he represents this organization and all they would have to do is have one assembly or put up a banner. He received no response. “This is where we’re still at!” grimaces Sam, his serious eyes being a rollercoaster. The man is revved. “Here are some schools…” he abruptly halts, “…no not schools…grown-ups who are running these schools who still think gays are not acceptable. This is the box we’re dealing with! It’s so sad.”
Photo by Faye Thomas
Just Like Us also includes the epidemic in their mentorship. Dominic Arnall, CEO of Just Like Us echoes the fright Sam encountered in his formative years. “When talking to teachers it’s important to dispel myths about HIV, as certainly in the U.K. in the eighties, fear over HIV was used as a weapon against LGBTQ+ people by the press. Our mentorship program provides open conversation about HIV, and our young role models are frequently answering questions about the disease.”
Sam insists, “I help others because I was helped. This may sound arrogant but I know how to give back. I know how this shit works.” Indeed, he praises his therapist for assisting him to evolve from the shame, and for coping with his addictive personality. He’s been clean for eighteen years.
“I don’t want to see others go through the pain I went through as a kid.” He means it. “I want them to come out the other side being aware and being themselves, especially when it comes to HIV,” beseeches Sam, acknowledging his recent milestone birthday turning forty. “I have a stronger voice now. I give less of a shit. My instinct is stronger,” he boasts proudly, without reservation.
Sam continues on about HIV prevention. “I think I know about the teenage brain…,” he mocks himself, laughing in waves of hiccups. “Actually, I know very little here but I saw a show on it once, so like, I’m an expert!” Sam learned that the pleasure center of a teen’s brain is colossal compared to the consequence center. “When you know that, it explains so much of their behavior and why they seem so irrational.”
Since this is a scientific fact, it’s Sam’s idea that it’s best to educate the people around kids about the disease and for them to support the teen’s developmental process. “It’s no good just preaching to the people who need the help,” explains Sam, feverishly, on a roll. “You have to teach the people near them.” He goes on. “If you can’t understand the consequences of what you are doing, you need an intervention from someone around you. They will reeducate you, change your brain, and help you grow in that way. The brain is still very plastic when you’re young and it can be changed really easily and quite quickly. This is what I learned.”
Sam pulls his shoulders back. “I’ve had struggles and have come out the other side. I now realize, Wow, everything [happens] for a reason.” He takes a beat. “Don’t know what the reason is, but…I don’t have to know.”
With this proverb he sums up his life’s modus operandi. “If you shake the apple tree here, oranges will fall over there.” He leans in. “Nothing is linear. Everything is connected. You put the work in here and something happens over there, whether it’s personal or professional.”
“I do find that especially now in lockdown, and in grieving. It’s a strange sort of comfort. Nothing is lost. This myth that we all are separate is what has caused so much stigma, racism, war, and so on.” He allows what he’s said to sink in. “Not needing to know why things happen can bring so much peace—can’t it?”
Now the sides of Sam’s mouth begin to lift—and there it is. There’s that characteristic cute grin, with a suave knowing perk. Sam sums up what he learned from his character, “It’s all about the Dirk Gently ethos of interconnectedness.”
“Ten days before my Dad went into the hospital, he came to Nottingham to see our new flat and he met Adam’s parents for the first time. He and I then went to lunch together and we had such an honest and frank open conversation. It was really kind and gentle and we had so many laughs. We talked for hours, saying things we never said before. After I put him on the train [to return to his home], I said to myself, ‘That was the best day I ever had with my Dad!’ We had no unfinished business that night. It was beautiful. We had this day together, these special moments! If that was the last time I was going to see him, I am so grateful that it was this day.
“At the 2014 Tony Awards, I was sitting with Adam. As a nominee, they announced my name. The camera panned in on us. I was looking at the stage and Adam was looking at me. It’s like a rocket launched in my brain. Eight years earlier I had been nominated for The History Boys, but I wasn’t a very happy person then. In…that…moment I was thinking, ‘Gosh, how much things have changed—within me.’ It was a special moment.
“A beautiful moment in my life was my first kiss. We were both fifteen and his name was Richard. I remember it to this day. [Sam coos.] When Richard kissed me there was a cascade from head to toe. It was the most tender thing, ever, and it lasted a couple of seconds. He was straight. We never did it again. But it was such a gift.”—Sam Barnett
CONTINUED CONNECTEDNESS
How do you handle opening night jitters, or just everyday anxiety?
I mediate every damn day and I make myself do it whether I want to or not! It has massively helped my anxiety. I have had stage fright and it’s terrifying. I have to get out of my own way so I switch my thinking my mind off in order to step out onto that stage and not totally freak-out the first few performances of a show. Essentially, my rational self confronts my irrational mind.
Who have you been starstuck over?
Julia Roberts. What a kind, kind woman.
Who do you look up to?
During The History Boys I looked up to Frances de la Tour—and I still do. She taught me so much about stagecraft, timing, delivery, pathos, and working with an audience. It was a master class every night working with her and Richard Griffiths, who is not with us anymore. They were extraordinary.
Name your favorite food, favorite actor, film, and color.
Olives, Judi Dench, Stand By Me, and blue.
Who are you dying to meet?
[Director] Peter Brook. I would just sit and listen to everything he has to say.
Samuel provides one word describing his friends, work buddies, and acquaintances.
Russell Tovey: Love.
Olivia Colman: ARRRRRGG [he flutters] Awestruck. [Sam was.]
The Wachowski sisters, Lilly and Lana: Trust.
Laura Linney: Connection.
Dominic Cooper: Lust!
James Cordon: Laughter.
Ian McKellan: Youth….Energy.
Patti LuPone: FAB-U-LOUS!
Paul Giamatti: Fully embodied.
Andrew Scott: Mercurial.
Mark Rylance: Channeling.
Elijah Wood: Two words please…those eyes!
Samuel Barnett:[Almost immediately Sam flippantly tosses] Confused?! [Then changes his mind to] Content.
Laura Romero, my constant support and unyielding mentor, I thank you. With you, sparks fly!
About John Samuel Barnett
John Samuel Barnett has been teaching the Word of God for over 30 years. Most of his lessons are available on YouTube. See http://www.youtube.com/c/DTBMOnlineVideoTraining John has studied at Michigan State University, Bob Jones University (B.S., B.A., M.A., M. Div.), The Master's Seminary (faculty and Th. M. work), Dallas Theological Seminary (Dr. of Biblical Ministry) and with Francis Schaeffer at L'Abri Fellowship.
John shares his life with Bonnie his beloved wife, and over the past 35 years of uninterrupted ministry, John has served congregations in the East, and the West, before coming to the precious saints at Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2008. He has served on the Faculty of the Master's College & Seminary. He was an Associate Pastor to Dr. John MacArthur at Grace Community Church for five years overseeing the Shepherding Ministries. During graduate school, John served as the Assistant Dean of Men at Bob Jones University for five years.
Called to the ministry as a young man--his passion remains prayer and the ministry of God's Word. As a global Christian, and having ministered the Word in 60+ nations around the world, John's ministry is deeply touched by outreach and evangelism. Since 1978, in conjunction with Land of the Book Tours John has led dozens of study tours, retreats, travels, and pilgrimages with over 1,500 participants, and taught on site in 21 countries and on five continents. His Tours filmed on site are available to watch online at DTBM.org.
As a Seminary Professor of Theology, Church History and the English Bible, John's messages reflect the background of the Scripture from the ancient biblical world, the history of the church and the daily life in far corners of the planet. In 1998 a new ministry called Discover the Book Ministry was launched to provide electronic copies of Pastor John's audio, video, and text studies free of charge to pastors, missionaries, and other believers. Since then, this ministry has grown to serve saints in all 50 states and over 145 lands around the world, as well as through daily radio on a growing number of radio stations in the USA, Europe and the Caribbean.
June Sarpong
He realised retrospectively that playing an unhappy teenager every night from the age of 24 to 27 had made him feel “a bit stunted” and that when it finished he felt he “physically changed”. But it was also something that he didn’t want to end — Alan Bennett wrote in his diaries that Barnett fought back tears while delivering his lines for the final performance.
“And now we’re all getting married and having babies,” he smiles.
But, contrary to the fandom’s wishes, none of them are getting married to each other. There’s a blog documenting every tweet Barnett and co-star Jamie Parker have written to each other. “Jamie texted me a link to it saying, ‘you need to look at this’, and we were both like, ooh dear! There’s so much Dirk Gently stuff too. It’s amazing how people want to homoeroticise or sexualise things.”
Dirk Gently, BBC America and Netflix’s major TV adaptation of books by Douglas Adams also starring Elijah Wood, was recently cancelled after two seasons. Barnett’s disappointment is obvious. Everyone involved thought there was going to be a third — “we had an outline for it and everything,” he says.
Fans have rallied round — an online petition to save the show has 90,000 signatures, with many claiming that it has saved their life, moved by its message that “everything is connected” and no one is alone.
I ask Barnett if recent sexual harassment allegations against the show’s writer, Max Landis, have affected how he looks back on it. He ruminates for a while. “No, because the show is not one person,” he says. He feels sad about it, but he also doesn’t know how to talk about it — “not because I don’t know what to say. I don’t know anything, is the problem.”
As far as he knows, none of the allegations against Landis came from anyone on Dirk Gently. “Oh my God, the climate we’re in, if I’d known anything about that stuff, I mean, I would have said something. I cannot function around that behaviour.” He says he’s called out bullying in previous jobs, and has no time for anyone who chooses to work with abusers while aware of their abusive behaviour. “You have to question, why the hell are they doing that? If you don’t know, what can you do?”
Barnett is getting ready for a year of theatre, with another stage project lined up that he can’t talk about yet. His boyfriend, Adam Penford, recently took over as artistic director of Nottingham Playhouse with a well-received revival of Beth Steel’s Eighties miner drama, Wonderland, but Barnett confides that he doesn’t have the “right kind of brain” to try his own hand at directing.
Kiss of the Spider Woman will be Barnett’s first time on stage in three years. Final question: is stage better than screen? “God, I’m going to sound like a w*****. Are you ready? The stage is where I’m in my most natural element. There’s just something about it: rehearsing, mining a text, watching it grow, having a live audience. I love it,” he says, sounding, as ever, nothing of the sort.
Samuel Barnett British Actor
Samuel Barnett has had no other relationships that we know of.
About
Samuel Barnett is a 41 year old British Actor. Born on 25th April, 1980 in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, he is famous for The History Boys. His zodiac sign is Taurus.
Samuel Barnett is a member of the following lists: 1980 births, English film actors and English television actors.
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Details
First Name | Samuel |
Last Name | Barnett |
Age | 41 years |
Birthday | 25th April, 1980 |
Birthplace | Whitby, North Yorkshire, England |
Build | Slim |
Eye Color | Blue |
Hair Color | Blonde |
Zodiac Sign | Taurus |
Sexuality | Gay |
Religion | Jewish |
Ethnicity | White |
Nationality | British |
Occupation Text | Actor |
Occupation | Actor |
Claim to Fame | The History Boys |
Year(s) Active | 2001–present |
Samuel Barnett (born April 25, 1980) is an English actor. He has performed on stage, film, television and radio, and achieved recognition for his work on the stage and film versions of The History Boys by Alan Bennett. His television performances include roles in the BBC comedy Twenty Twelve and in the Showtime drama Penny Dreadful. He played the lead role of Dirk Gently in the 2016 BBC America adaptation of the Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency book series by Douglas Adams.
What Is Samuel's Net Worth?
Samuel Barnett summons his net worth by working as a movie star. Though his net value has not been estimated yet, the movie star makes approximately about $150,000 to $20 million from their roles in the movies. The salary differs according to the character an actor does in the film.
Samuel began his acting career back in the days by appearing in the play named as The History Boys. The drama was originally from London, but Samuel also appeared in different versions of the same play in different places like Sydney, Hong Kong and even in New York. A few years later Samuel appeared in BBC series Desperate Romantics as John Everett Millais.
Till date, he has worked extremely hard by making his way forward from working in theaters to big movies and TV shows like Coupling, Strange, Doctors, The Royal, American Experience, Beautiful People, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Vicious, Endeavour, Penny Dreadful, and many other.
Samuel has also got honored with many awards in his career like Drama Desk Award in 2006 and Best Newcomer & Best Supporting Actor for The History Boys.
Samuel Barnett Net Worth
British theater, screen, and radio actor. He became known for his performances in the film and stage versions of The History Boys, as well as for his roles in the Globe Theatre (London) productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III.