L.M. Kit Carson(1941-2014)
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
L.M. Kit Carson was a talented and versatile Texan writer, actor and
producer whose career has taken a diverse and always interesting
course. He was born in Dallas, to Louise (Roche) and Minor Lee Carson.
His first appearance was the lead in the acclaimed David Holzman's
Diary (1967). He moved into writing, with initially mixed results in
The Last Word (1979) and Breathless (1983) before his beautiful
adaptation of Sam Shepard's Paris, Texas (1982) tangibly showed his
talent. Next up was the oddity The Chinese Box (1986) before associate
producing and writing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). It was back
to acting in 1988 for an effective appearance in the acclaimed Running
on Empty. A family friend of the Wilson brothers, their black-and-white
13 minute Bottle Rocket made its way into his hands in 1994. His
championing of it was instrumental in Wes Anderson being given funding
to shoot a full-length version in 1996, which he co-produced. Carson's
output in was nothing if not varied - including several collaborations
with his son, Hunter Carson, from his
marriage to actress Karen Black;
Hurricane Streets (1997) was a worthwhile drama of inner-city kids,
Midsummer (1997) an interesting take on Shakespeare. He reprised his
role of David Holzman for Grifin Dunne's industry mockumentary Lisa
Picard is Famous (2000) then produced and wrote the disasterous
Bullfigher (2000). Since then, Perfume (2001) was a behind-the-scenes
look at the fashion industry, CQ (2001) a homage to European cinema of
the 60s and staying in Paris the interesting low-budget thriller Tempo
(2003).
