1988 Obituary


The New York Times, November 29, 1988

John Carradine, Actor, 82, Dies; Appeared in Numerous Film Roles
by Albin Krebs

… John Carradine, a lanky, saturnine character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and, on screen or the stage, played roles as disparate as Hamlet and Dracula, died Sunday in a hospital in Milan. He was 82 years old.
… Mr. Carradine, whose acting career spanned more than a half-century, was the patriarch of an American acting family. Four of his five sons, David, Robert, Keith and Bruce, have acted in movies and on television. Only Christopher Carradine chose not to follow in his father's footsteps; he became an architect.
… Tall and gaunt and possessing a deep and mellow baritone voice, Mr. Carradine early impressed critics and audiences alike with his first important role, as Preacher Casey in John Ford's "Grapes of Wrath."

'The Bard of the Boulevard'

… In private life, he amusedly cultivated a reputation as an eccentric and a bit of a ham. Grandly bedecked in a red-lined satin cape and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, he liked to stroll the streets of Los Angeles and New York, sonorously reciting Shakespearean dialogue. In Hollywood he was sometimes called the "Bard of the Boulevard."
… He often toured as Hamlet in the 1940s, but his Broadway appearances were few. Mr. Carradine's last major role in New York was in the 1962 musical comedy "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," in which he played Lycus, a likable dealer in courtesans.
… As a member of the director John Ford's informal "stock company" of character actors, which included Ward Bond, Wallace Ford, Jane.Darwell and Walter Brennan, Mr. Carradine appeared in 10 Ford films. These included "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936), in which he was the sadistic guard of Dr. Samuel Mudd.
… Other Ford films in which Mr. Carradine appeared included "Mary of Scotland" (1936), "The Hurricane" (1937), "Drums along the Mohawk" (1939), "Stagecoach" (1939), "The Last Hurrah" (1958), "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) and "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964).
… Richmond Reed Carradine was born on February 5, 1906, in the Greenwich Village section of New York. His father was an attorney and poet who eventually became an Associated Press foreign correspondent; his mother was a surgeon. After high school he tried fitfully to make a living as a sketch artist and a scenery painter. It was during that period that he developed a love for Shakespeare and began memorizing his works.
… He hitchedhiked around the South for a time., sketching local businessman and their daughters. "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-$15 a day."
… But the acting profession called, and in 1925 Mr. Carradine won a featured role in a New Orleans production of "Camille." He then joined a touring Shakespearean stock company, winding up in 1927 in Hollywood, where he earned a lean living in local stage productions.

'An Apparition' Reading 'Hamlet'

… He got his first important movie role, he recalled in a 1944 interview, "when the great Cecil B DeMille 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."
… Mr. Carradine, who had made his film debut in a bit part in "Tol'able David" in 1930, won a role in DeMille's 1932 spectacle, "The Sign of the Cross."
… "The director was so impressed with my rich, deep voice," Mr. Carradine said, "that he had me recite the Beatitudes, which, unfortunately, wound up on the soundtrack emanating from another actor's mouth."
… Disappointing as that was for Mr. Carradine, it was the beginning of an impressive and rewarding career as one of Hollywood's most sought-after character actors. His tall, reed-like figure and his strikingly gaunt features won him a wide variety of supporting roles, often as villains, and he occasionally appeared as the offbeat, eccentric best friend of the leading man.

CASTING ROLES OF EVIL

… The actor, who changed his name to John Carradine in 1935, starred in dozens of B movies, typically in the horror genre, as mad doctors, demented scientist and sadistic criminals. He played the bloodthirsty vampire Dracula in three movies, including the beguilingly titled "Billy the Kid versus Dracula," in 1966. Like his friend Vincent Price, who played similar roles, he was not above hamming and mugging for the camera.
… Among Mr. Carradine's dozens of films were "The Invisible Man" (1933), DeMille's "Cleopatra" (1934), "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), "Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939), "Blood and Sand" (1941), "Casanova's Big Night," 1954), "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956) and "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask" (1972).
… Mr. Carradine said that among his favorite movies were "Of Human Hearts" (1938), in which he played Lincoln; "Hitler's Madman" (1943), in which he appeared as the Nazi general Reinhard Heydrich; "The Adventures of Mark Twain" (1944), in which he was seen as the writer Brett Harte, and DeMille's "Ten Commandments" (1956), in which he played Arron.

'THEY GAVE ME FREEDOM'

… "I never made big money in Hollywood," Mr. Carradine said in 1986. "I was paid in hundreds, the stars got thousands. But I worked with some of the greatest directors in films, and some of the greatest writers. They gave me freedom to do what I can do best and that was gratifying."
… Whenever he could, he returned to his beloved Shakespearean roles, usually on tours. In 1952 he included some Shakespeare, along with passages from Shaw, Rupert Brooke and the Bible, in a one-man recital at the Village Vanguard, a nightclub in Greenwich Village.
… He said he often advertised his actor sons: "Read all the Shakespeare you can. If you play Shakespeare, you can play anything."
… Mr. Carradine, whose three marriages ended in divorce, is survived by his sons and several grandchildren.

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