Jack Carson
Jack Carson (* 27. October 1910 in Carman , Manitoba as John Elmer Carson ; † 2. January 1963 in Encino , California ) was a Canadian - American actor .
Life
Jack Carson was born in Carman, Canada to Elmer and Elsa Carson. Not long afterwards, the family moved to Milwaukee , United States, where Jack also attended high school. Carson first discovered his interest in acting while studying at Carleton College . The tall, beefy actor appeared on stage as Hercules in his first play, but he accidentally fell down with a number of props. His friend Dave Willock (1909–1990) saw this involuntarily comical interlude and founded the comedic vaudeville act "Willock and Carson" with him . In 1936 the young actors moved to Hollywood and in 1937 he made his film debut as a guest gas station attendant alongside Henry Fonda in the film Rushed . In his first films in Hollywood he was mostly only given extras , but in the late 1930s he established himself as a successful supporting actor. In addition, he was successful together with Willock on the Bing Crosby radio program . He had one of his first better roles alongside Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart in the western The Big Bluff .
Jack Carson's specialty were comical supporting roles: He often played good-natured, but joking and not too intelligent or serious characters. In Arsen und Lace Cap (1944), for example, he played an inexperienced policeman who mainly focused on writing a piece while murderous events were happening in front of his nose. Other comedies with Carson included Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith from 1941 and Magic Nights in Rio from 1948, where he played one of his rare leading roles. Carson has been paired with Dennis Morgan as a comedian duo in a series of Warner Bros. films in the - futile - hope of replicating the success of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope . He had one of his more serious roles during this time as an admirer of Joan Crawford in Michael Curtiz's drama Solange ein Herz Beats (1946) .
In the 1950s, he made fewer and fewer films, and instead appeared on Broadway, and especially on emerging television. In 1954, he broke with his screen image and surprised many critics, following an unscrupulous press agent in a new star in the sky of George Cukor embodied. He had one of his last film appearances as the brother of Paul Newman in the drama The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from 1958.
Carson was married four times, including actresses Kay St. Germain Wells (1941–1950) and Lola Albright (1952–1958). His brother was the actor Robert Carson . Jack Carson died of gastric cancer in 1963 at the age of 52 . He has a star on the Walk of Fame (1560 Vine Street).
Filmography (selection)
- 1937: You Only Live Once (You Only Live Once)
- 1937: Stage Door (Stage Door)
- 1937: Mr. Dodd goes to Hollywood (stand-in)
- 1937: A damsel in distress (A Damsel in Distress)
- 1938: You don't kiss leopards (Bringing Up Baby)
- 1938: Vivacious Lady
- 1938: Carefree by Dr. Flagg - Carefree (Carefree)
- 1939: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- 1939: The Great Bluff (Destry Rides Again)
- 1940: Hell of the South Seas (Typhoon)
- 1940: lucky (Lucky Partners)
- 1941: Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
- 1941: Most Beautiful in Town (The Strawberry Blonde)
- 1941: The bride came cash on delivery (The Bride Came COD)
- 1941: Blues in the Night
- 1942: Subject: Der Mann (The Male Animal)
- 1942: The Gauner GmbH (Larency, Inc.)
- 1942: The Cheeky Cavalier (Gentleman Jim)
- 1943: A Woman's Confession (The Hard Way)
- 1943: The Pilot and the Princess (Princess O'Rourke)
- 1943: Thank Your Lucky Stars
- 1944: Arsenic and Old Lace (Arsenic and Old Lace)
- 1944: Hollywood Canteen
- 1945: A Roughly Speaking Woman
- 1945: As long as a heart beats (Mildred Pierce)
- 1946: Heaven full of violins ( The Time, the Place and the Girl )
- 1947: So You Want to Be in Pictures (cameo)
- 1948: Magic Nights in Rio (Romance on the High Seas)
- 1949: My Dream Is Yours
- 1949: A great feeling (It's a Great Feeling)
- 1950: Between Two Women (Bright Leaf)
- 1953: The Water Princess (Dangerous When Wet)
- 1954: A new star in the sky (A Star Is Born)
- 1954: A Happy Divorce (Phffft)
- 1956: The Bottom of the Bottle
- 1957: The Tattered Dress
- 1958: Duel in the Clouds (The Tarnished Angels)
- 1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
- 1958: Don't be afraid of spicy things (Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!)
- 1960: Everyone pays for their debt (The Bramble Bush)
Web links
- Jack Carson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Carson, Jack |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Carson, John Elmer |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian-American actor |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 27, 1910 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Carman , Manitoba , Canada |
DATE OF DEATH | 2nd January 1963 |
Place of death | Encino , California , United States |