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John Carradine
JC- Dracula
Born Richmond Reed Carradine
New York City, New York, U.S.
Other names Peter Richmond
Occupation Actor
Years active 1930–87
Spouse 1) Ardanelle McCool Cosner (1935-44; divorced; 1 child)
2) Sonia Sorel (1944-56; divorced; 3 children)
3) Doris Rich (1957-71; her death)
4) Emily Cisneros (1975-88; his death)
Parents William Reed Carradine
Genevieve Winifred Richmond

John Carradine (born Richmond Reed Carradine; February 5, 1906 – November 27, 1988) was a prolific actor, best known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespeare. He was married several times and was the patriarch of an acting dynasty.

Universal Horror Films

Early life

John Carradine was born in the Greenwich Village section of New York City, the son of Genevieve Winifred, a surgeon, and William Reed Carradine, a reported. John attended the Christ Church School in Kingston.[1] and the Episcopal Academy in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where he developed his diction and his memory while memorizing portions of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer as a punishment.[2]

Carradine's son, David, recalled that his father ran away when he was 14 years old. He returned at some point, as he studied sculpture at Philadelphia's Graphic Arts Institute.[1] John lived with his maternal uncle Peter Richmond in New York City for a while, working in the film archives of the public library. David said that while still a teenager, his father went to Richmond, Virginia, where he served as apprentice to Daniel Chester French, the sculptor who created the statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Monument (see notes). He traveled for a time, supporting himself painting portraits. "If the sitter was satisfied, the price was $2.50," he once said. "It cost him nothing if he thought it was a turkey. I made as high as $10 to $15 a day."[3] During this time, he was arrested for vagrancy. While in jail Carradine was beaten, suffering a broken nose that did not set correctly. This contributed to "the look that would become world famous."[2]

David Carradine said, "My dad told me that he saw a production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice when he was eleven years old and decided right then what he wanted to do with his life".[2] He made his stage debut in 1925 in New Orleans in a production of Camille and worked for a time in a New Orleans Shakespeare company.[1] Carradine joined a tent repertory theater under the management of R. D. MaClean, who became his mentor. In 1927, he took a job escorting a shipment of bananas from Dallas, Texas to Los Angeles,[1] where he eventually picked up some theater work under the name of Peter Richmond, in homage to his uncle. He became friends with John Barrymore, and began working for Cecil B. DeMille as a set designer. Carradine, however, did not have the job long. "DeMille noticed the lack of Roman columns in my sketches," Carradine said. "I lasted two weeks."[1] Once DeMille heard his baritone voice, however, he hired him to do voice-overs. Carradine said, "...the great Cecil B. De Mille saw an apparition - me - pass him by, reciting the gravedigger's lines from 'Hamlet,' and he instructed me to report to him the following day."[3] He became a member of DeMille's stock company and his voice was heard in several DeMille pictures, including The Sign of the Cross.

Career

John CarradineThe Hurricane Trailer screenshot

Screenshot from The Hurricane (1937)

Carradine's first film credit was Tol'able David (1930), but he claimed to have done 70 pictures before getting billing. Carradine tested, along with Conrad Veidt, William Courtenay, Paul Muni, and Ian Keith, for the title role in Dracula, but all contenders lost out to Bela Lugosi. Carradine would later play the Count in the Universal Studios Dracula sequels House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. Lugosi and Carradine both also tested for the monster role in Frankenstein (1931).[1] By 1933, he was being credited as John Peter Richmond, perhaps in honor of his friend, John Barrymore.[2] He adopted the stage name "John Carradine" in 1935, and legally took the name as his own two years later.

By 1936, Carradine had become a member of John Ford’s stock company and appeared in The Prisoner of Shark Island. In total, he made 11 pictures with Ford, including his first important role, as Preacher Casy in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), which starred Henry Fonda.[3] Other Ford films in which Carradine appeared includeThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Stagecoach (1939), both with John Wayne.

Grapes of Wrath, The - (Original Trailer) - 03

As preacher Casy in The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

He also portrayed the Biblical hero Aaron in DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956).

Carradine did considerable stage work, much of which provided his only opportunity to work in a classic drama context. He toured with his own Shakespearean company in the 1940s, playing Hamlet and Macbeth. His Broadway roles included Ferdinand in a 1946 production of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, the Ragpicker in a 13-month run of Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, Lycus in a 15-month run of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and DeLacey in the expensive one-night flop Frankenstein in 1981. He also toured in road companies of such shows as Tobacco Road and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which he was properly emaciated as the cancer-ridden Big Daddy, a part, he said, which Tennessee Williams wrote for him.[1]

Carradine claimed to have appeared in more than 450 movies, but only 225 movies can be documented (his count is closer to fact if theatrical movies, made-for-TV movies and TV shows are included).[1][4][5] He often played eccentric, insane or diabolical characters, especially in the horror genre with which he had become identified as a "star" by the mid-1940s. He occasionally played a heroic role, as in The Grapes of Wrath, in which he played Casy, the ill-fated "preacher", and he occasionally played a sympathetic role, as in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, in which he played Blake's shipmate, who escapes with him to a tropical island full of riches.

He appeared in dozens of low-budget horror films from the 1940s onwards, in order to finance a touring classical theatre company. He sang the theme song to one film in which he appeared briefly, Red Zone Cuba. He also made more than 100 television appearances, including CBS's My Friend Flicka and Place the Face, NBC's Overland Trail in the 1960 episode "The Reckoning," and on ABC's Harrigan and Son and The Legend of Jesse James. He made recurring appearances as the mortician, Mr. Gateman, on CBS' The Munsters. In 1985, Carradine won a Daytime Emmy award for his performance as an eccentric old man who lives by the railroad tracks in the Young People's Special, Umbrella Jack.

In 1982, he supplied the voice of the Great Owl in the animated feature The Secret of NIMH. One of Carradine's final film appearances was Peggy Sue Got Married in 1986. Carradine's last released film credit was Bikini Drive-In, released years after his death.

Carradine's deep, resonant voice earned him the nickname "The Voice". He was also known as the "Bard of the Boulevard," due to his idiosyncratic habit of strolling Hollywood streets while reciting Shakespearean soliloquies, something he always denied.[1]

Death

On November 27, 1988, John Carradine died at Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan, Italy at age 82. Hours before he was stricken, he had climbed the 328 steep steps of Milan's Gothic cathedral, the Duomo. According to David Carradine, he had just finished a film in South Africa and was about to begin a European tour. David was with him, reading Shakespeare to him, when he succumbed to his condition. By the time David and Keith Carradine had arrived at their father's bedside, he was unable to speak. "I was told that his last words were 'Milan: What a beautiful place to die.'"

Legacy and honors

  • For his contribution to the motion picture industry, John Carradine has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6240 Hollywood Blvd.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Beaver, Jim. "John Carradine", Films in Review, October 1979.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Carradine, David. Endless Highway(1995) Journey Publishing
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Krebs, Albin. "John Carradine, Actor, Dies; appeared in Numerous Roles", New York Times, November 29, 1988.
  4. Carradine interview, Dick Cavett Show, 1977..
  5. Weaver, Tom. John Carradine: The Films, McFarland & Co., 1999.

Further reading

  • Weaver, Tom. John Carradine: The Films. McFarland & Co., 1999.

External links


Th UniversalMonsters This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at John Carradine.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Universal Monsters Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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