On the 16th of October 1940, Leonard Barrie Corbin was born in Lamesa, Texas. The eldest of three children (brother Blaine and sister Jane), born to Kilmer and Alma Corbin.

His father, Kilmer Blaine Corbin (1919-1993), was a successful lawyer who graduated from Texas Tech University and the University of Texas Law School. He represented 24 West Texas counties in the Senate from 1948 - 1956 and also served as a Dawson County judge and School principal.

Barry's mother, Alma LaMerle (Scott) Corbin (1918-1994), was an elementary-school teacher.

Barry's first public performance was delivered from behind a piano at church at the age of six. By age seven, Barry was organizing neighborhood plays. He told his parents he planned to be an actor. He drew cartoons and learned to play the guitar.

Like most 10-year-old-boys, Barry sat in the darkened Majestic Theater in Lamesa for Saturday afternoon matinees. Dreams of exchanging places with the larger-than-life heroes on the screen filled his head. He was mesmerized by "B" Westerns and he idolized the Durango Kid, but he realized the character actors had more fun.

Barry attended Monterey High School in Lubbock, where he appeared regularly in school plays including musicals, where he sang "not real well, but loud". He became a member of the Future Farmers of America. 

He took courses and acted in plays without following a degree program, or indeed, any program except his own.

Source: barrycorbin.net