Biography for
John Carradine More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

5 February 1906, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

27 November 1988, Milan, Italy (natural causes)

Birth Name

Richmond Reed Carradine

Nickname

The Bard of Boulevard
The Voice

Height

6' 1¼" (1.86 m)

Mini Biography

Son of a reporter/artist and a surgeon. Grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. Attended Christ Church School, and Graphic Art School, studying sculpture. Roamed the South selling sketches. Made acting debut in Camille in a New Orleans theatre in 1925. Arrived in Los Angeles in 1927, worked in local theatre. Applied as scenic designer to Cecil B. DeMille, who rejected his designs but gave him voice work in several films. Debuted on film in Tol'able David (1930), billed as Peter Richmond. Protege and close friend of John Barrymore. Extremely prolific movie character actor, while simultaneously maintaining a stage career in classic leading roles such as Hamlet and Malvolio. Typed in later years as horror star. Member of the "John Ford Stock Company."

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver

Spouse

Emily Cisneros	(3 July 1975 - 27 November 1988) (his death)
Doris Rich	(30 August 1957 - 18 May 1971) (her death)
Sonia Sorel	(13 August 1944 - 6 March 1957) (divorced) 3 children
Ardanelle McCool	(31 December 1935 - 14 March 1944) (divorced) 1 child

Trade Mark

Deep baritone voice

Trivia

Father of Chris Carradine, David Carradine, Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine. Adoptive father of Bruce Carradine.

The Carradine family traces its ancestry back to an actual saint--St. Pedro Carradegna, patron saint of Barcelona.

Grandfather of Martha Plimpton.

Changed his name to John Carradine in 1935.

Always ranked his performance in Bluebeard (1944) high among his career favorites.

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 2003.

Grandfather of Ever Carradine.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 165-167. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

Claimed near the end of his life to have appeared more movies than any other actor, surpassing the record set by Donald Crisp, the Oscar-winning actor and director who had started in silent films and had appeared in numerous one and two-reel films, many of them lost. The title for actor who appeared in most films likely is a contest between Carradine (more than 300 films) and Crisp (at least 170 known films). Of the contemporary generation, Christopher Lee, who has acted in more films than his peers (over 200 films), does not come close to matching Carradine's profligacy.

In later life he suffered from crippling arthritis, but continued to work.

Personal Quotes

Ingmar Bergman said he cast David Carradine in The Serpent's Egg (1977) "because he has the princely blood of his father in his veins."

I've made some of the greatest films ever made - and a lot of crap, too.

[His last words before passing away] "Milan. What a beautiful place to die."

As for making movies, who can act at eight o'clock in the morning? Let's face it!

Directors never direct me. They just turn me loose.

[on Darryl F. Zanuck] Nobody liked working for Zanuck, the little goddamn Napolean, always walking around with his polo mallet. Nobody had any respect for him except as an executive. And he was a good editor at one time, but he fancied himself a writer, and he was not a good writer.

[on Cecil B. DeMille] I was very fond of him. I never saw him direct an actor; his specialty was the camera. He simply hired the best actors he could get and let them do their job. He didn't interfere with them unless something was drastically wrong. DeMille's specialty was the camera, the pageantry.

[on John Ford] Oh, Ford was a peculiar man. You had to know how to handle him. Actors were terrified of him because he liked to terrify them. He was a sadist.

I am a ham! And the ham in an actor is what makes him interesting.

Lionel Barrymore then had hands like mine are now - arthritic talons.

Never do anything you wouldn't want to be caught dead doing.

Salary

Shock Waves (1977)	$5,000
Stagecoach (1939)	$3,600

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