Todd Karns

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Roscoe Todd Karns (born January 15, 1921 in Hollywood , California - † February 5, 2000 in Ajijic , Jalisco , Mexico ) was an American actor.

life and career

Roscoe Todd Karns was born one of two children to character actor Roscoe Karns and his wife Mary M. Fraso. The parents had married a year before he was born and remained married until Roscoe Karn's death in 1970. To distinguish himself from his well-known father, Roscoe Todd Karns dropped the first name from his film appearances. He began his acting career in the early 1940s with the role of Harry Land in the Andy Hardy film series opposite Mickey Rooney . However, his film career was interrupted after only three films by a deployment in World War II with the United States Army Air Corps . His first film after the end of the war was Isn't Life Beautiful? (1946), in which he played James Stewart's younger brother Harry Bailey in his most famous role . In the same year he married his wife Katherine Karns, they remained married until his death.

The classic film Isn't life beautiful? - which was a flop at the box office at the time and only gained popularity decades later through broadcasts on US television - did not give Karns a career boost. Instead, he mostly had to be content with small supporting roles in films in the following years, for example in Die Caine was her fate (1954). In the 1950s he came to a few guest roles on television and played his father's sidekick on the detective series Rocky King, Inside Detective . In the mid-1950s, he retired from the film and television business. In 1971 he moved to Mexico with his wife and their three children, where he opened the English-language theater "The Lakeside Little Theater". He worked there as a theater producer and director until his death.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Todd Karns in the Los Angeles Times
personal data
SURNAME Karns, Todd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karns, Roscoe Todd (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Hollywood , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 2000
Place of death Ajijic , Jalisco, Mexico