David Joyner: Last News

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David Joyner might not be the most recognizable name to television fans, but his work as the actor inside the suit of Barney certainly is. Joyner played the benevolent purple dinosaur on “Barney & Friends” for a decade from 1991 to 2001. On a recent episode of the “Generation Barney” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly), he remembered a time when the Ku Klux Klan banned their children from watching “Barney” because Joyner is Black.

Pity the purple dinosaur. He came to spread a message of love, and got the stuffing knocked out of him.

two-part documentary about the darkness surrounding the legendary kid’s show “Barney & Friends.”Friendly faces like Bill Nye and Al Roker are interviewed for “I Love You, You Hate Me,” but so are former actors David Joyner and Bob West — who both donned the purple dinosaur suit during the show’s run from 1992 to 2010.They both provide not-so-jovial recollections about their time as Barney — West even alleging that his entire family received death threats.“They were violent and explicit, death and dismemberment of my family,” he recalls on top of video of Barney stuffed animals being lit on fire. “They were gonna come and find me, and they were going to kill me.”Another interview subject talked about some of the “rumors” he heard about the costumed character, including that he hid “dugs in his tail.”The trailer ends with a woman saying, “I don’t think you could ever think somebody would go and shoot someone.”This could relate to “Barney” founder Sheryl Leach’s son, Patrick Kearns Leach, who was charged with one count each of assault with a firearm and shooting for allegedly shooting his neighbor multiple times after an argument in 2013.

Barney the Dinosaur was a mainstay throughout most of our childhoods, teaching children about the world for much of the 1990s. However, it might surprise you to hear what the actor inside the suit got up to when he wasn’t playing the part of the purple dinosaur.