Oscar Profile #289: John Carradine

Born Richmond Reed Carradine on February 5, 1906 in New York, New York, and billed as Peter Richmond, then John Peter Richmond through 1935, John Carradine eventually amassed 350 known screen and television credits beyond the 70 he claimed he did not get credit for in silent films, making him the most prolific actor in Hollywood history. No one else comes close.

The future actor’s father died when he was 2. His mother remarried and his stepfather beat him every day, causing him to run away from home at 14. He eventually returned to his mother’s Poughkeepsie home to study sculpture, his father’s trade. Later his deep voice got him acting jobs on stage. Moving to Hollywood, he played bit parts in 70 silent films, receiving his first screen credit in 1930’s Tol’able David. He continued in bit parts in such films as The Sign of the Cross, The Invisible Man, Les Misérables, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Crusades. He received his first billing as John Carradine in 1936’s The Prisoner of Shark Island, quickly becoming a member of John Ford’s stock company.

A standout in such films as Mary of Scotland, The Garden of Allah, Captains Courageous, The Hurricane, Of Human Hearts, Jesse James, Stageoach and Drums Along the Mohawk, Carradine then played his signature role as the preacher in The Grapes of Wrath.

The actor continued to win fans with his performances in Brigham Young, Western Union, Blood and Sand, Hitler’s Madman, Bluebeard (the title role), House of Frankenstein (as Dracula), House of Dracula (the title role) and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (his most sympathetic role).

One of the first film stars to find a niche on TV, he starred as Scrooge in 1947’s A Christmas Carol, followed by many other roles through 1953. Back on the big screen, he was commanding once again in Johnny Guitar, The Egyptian, The Court Jester, The Ten Commandments, Around the World in 80 Days, The Last Hurrah and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance among many others interspersed with numerous TV appearances.

By the 1970s Carradine’s appearances had dwindled to mostly walk-ons, but even they had their charms as witness his surgeon who performs the sex-change operation in Myra Brekinridge and the blind gatekeeper in The Sentinel. Late career films of note included The Shootist and Peggy Sue Got Married.

Carradine started an acting dynasty. His sons David (Bound for Glory) (from his first of four marriages), Keith (Nashville) and Robert (Coming Home) (from his second) and three of his grandchildren including Keith’s daughter Martha Plimpton (Parenthood) have all had major careers. Oddly only Keith has been nominated for and won an Oscar, albeit for the song “I’m Easy” from Nashville, not his acting.

John Carradine died on November 27, 1988 at 82.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (1936), directed by John Ford

Warner Baxter had one of his best roles as Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who treated John Wilkes Booth’s injured leg after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Sentenced to the notorious Fort Jefferson in the Florida Keys also known as Shark Island, the innocent doctor redeems himself in the eyes of his fellow prisoners and guards when he saves hundreds from a yellow jack epidemic. Carradine as his principal torturer, who repents after Mudd saves his life, gives a superb performance that was singled out by reviewers as much as Baxter’s. It still holds up brilliantly.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940), directed by John Ford

The entire cast of Ford’s film of John Steinbeck’s Great Depression era masterpiece is outstanding, but there are three performances in the film that are among the greatest ever put on screen in any film – those of Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, Jane Darwell as Ma Joad and John Carradine as Jim Casy AKA “The Preacher”. Darwell was amply rewarded with an Oscar for her portrayal of the hopeful mother and Fonda was nominated for his portrayal of the film’s equally stalwart protagonist, but where oh where was the nomination for Carradine, whose greatest work was also on display in this film?

BLUEBEARD (1944), directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Carradine was at home in some of the greatest screen classics as well as some of the schlockiest. He played opposite Boris Karloff on stage in a horror play before either was well known. He played opposite Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone and Lon Chaney, Jr. in some of the most famous horror films of his time. Although he appeared in many such films, it was this 1944 Grade B classic in which he played the French serial killer of which he was fondest. Jean Parker, Nils Asther and Ludwig Stossel are also quite good under the characteristically strong direction of thriller director Ulmer (Detour).

THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI (1947), directed by Albert Lewin

Three of the stars of Lewin’s 1945 classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray (George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Richard Fraser) were reunited by the director for this 1947 film based on the novel by Guy de Maupassant. Sanders plays the titled cad very well but he’s so stiff and cold for most of the film that one wonders what all the women around him (Lansbury, Ann Dvorak, Frances Dee, Marie Wilson, etc.) see in him. Richard Fraser (Lansbury’s brother in Dorian Gray) is the late appearing hero. Carradine steals it as Dvorak’s husband, wistfully dreaming of immortality even as he lays dying.

PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986), directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Carradine kept working up until his death in 1988. Indeed, two of his films weren’t released until well after his death, Buried Alive in 1990 and Jack-O in 1995, they were so bad. Fans of the prolific actor will agree that this film, his fourth to last, would have been a more fitting swan song. Granted, he doesn’t have much to do in it, but neither does Maureen O’Sullivan who would also be making her last watchable film. Look for them both in this Coppola comedy starring Kathleen Turner in her only Oscar nominated performance and Coppola’s prolific nephew, Nicolas Cage.