John Carradine was an American actor, considered one of the greatest character actors in American cinema.
45 Facts About John Carradine
2.
John Carradine was a member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, best known for his roles in horror films, Westerns, and Shakespearean theater, most notably portraying Count Dracula in House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Billy the Kid Versus Dracula, and Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula.
3.
Carradine was married four times, had five children, and was the patriarch of the Carradine family, including four sons and four grandchildren who are or were actors.
4.
John Carradine was born in New York City, the son of William Reed John Carradine, a correspondent for the Associated Press, and his wife, Genevieve Winnifred Richmond, a surgeon.
5.
William John Carradine was the son of evangelical author Beverly John Carradine.
6.
William Carradine died from tuberculosis when his son John was two years old.
7.
John Carradine later returned, as he studied sculpture at Philadelphia's Graphic Arts Institute.
8.
John Carradine lived with his maternal uncle, Peter Richmond, in New York City for a while, working in the film archives of the public library.
9.
John Carradine traveled for a time, supporting himself painting portraits.
10.
David John Carradine said, "My dad told me that he saw a production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice when he was 11 years old and decided right then what he wanted to do with his life".
11.
John Carradine 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.
12.
John Carradine became friends with John Barrymore, and began working for Cecil B DeMille as a set designer.
13.
John Carradine later played the Count in the 1940s Universal Studios Dracula sequels House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula.
14.
John Carradine claimed to have tested for the monster role in Frankenstein, though again, no account exists other than his own that he actually did so.
15.
John Carradine adopted the stage name "John Carradine" in 1935, and legally took the name as his own two years later.
16.
In 1935's Bride of Frankenstein, John Carradine had a brief uncredited walk on role as a hunter in the forest.
17.
John Carradine portrayed the Biblical hero Aaron in DeMille's The Ten Commandments, and he dominated Hitler's Madman as Reinhard Heydrich.
18.
John Carradine did considerable stage work, much of which provided his only opportunity to work in a classic drama context.
19.
John Carradine toured with his own Shakespearean company in the 1940s, playing Hamlet and Macbeth.
20.
John Carradine 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.
21.
John Carradine claimed to have appeared in more than 450 movies, but only 225 movies can be documented.
22.
John Carradine's count is closer to fact if theatrical movies, made-for-TV movies, and television programs are included.
23.
John Carradine 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.
24.
John Carradine appeared in dozens of low-budget horror films from the 1940s onwards, to finance a touring classical theater company.
25.
John Carradine played a small but important role in the very-high-budget comedy The Court Jester, which was at the time of its release the most expensive comedy film ever made.
26.
John Carradine sang the theme song to one film in which he appeared briefly, Red Zone Cuba.
27.
John Carradine made more than 100 acting appearances on television over a period of 39 years.
28.
John Carradine appeared in 1959 as the mind reader in The Rifleman episode of the same name.
29.
John Carradine made recurring appearances as the mortician Mr Gateman on the television comedy series The Munsters.
30.
John Carradine appeared as well in both of Irwin Allen's classic 1960s science-fiction television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants.
31.
In 1985, John Carradine won a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance as an eccentric man who lives by the railroad tracks in the Young People's Special Umbrella Jack.
32.
John Carradine's last released film credit was Jack-O, released years after his death.
33.
John Carradine was known as the "Bard of the Boulevard" due to his idiosyncratic habit of strolling Hollywood streets while reciting Shakespearean soliloquies, something he always denied.
34.
John Carradine married his first wife, Ardanelle Abigail McCool, in 1935.
35.
John had planned a large family, but according to the autobiography of his son David, after Ardanelle had had a series of miscarriages, Carradine discovered that she had repeated "coat hanger" abortions, without his knowledge, which rendered her unable to carry a baby to full term.
36.
John Carradine left California to avoid court action in the alimony settlement.
37.
In 1945, immediately following his divorce from Ardanelle, John Carradine married Sonia Sorel, who had appeared with him in the 1944 film Bluebeard.
38.
Robert John Carradine said that he was raised primarily by his stepmother, his father's third wife, Doris Grimshaw, and believed her to be his mother until he was introduced to Sonia Sorel at a Christmas party when he was 14 years old.
39.
When John Carradine married Doris Grimshaw in 1957, she already had a son, Dale, from a previous marriage and a son, Michael, from a later relationship.
40.
John Carradine was a one-time studio typist who typed the script to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and who played a few roles in film and television.
41.
John Carradine had been rescued from a similar fire two weeks earlier.
42.
John Carradine was married a fourth time, from 1975 to his 1988 death, to Emily Cisneros.
43.
John Carradine had a brief Broadway career and produced and directed a number of independent projects.
44.
John Carradine's son Christopher is an architect and vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering.
45.
John Carradine leans over the seat, Lucille Ball at front right.