John Carradine

7.4	Listal rating

Stats

Birth Name: Richmond Reed Carradine

Born: 5 February 1906 Died: 27 November 1988

Country of origin: United States

Height: 6' 2"

Ethnicity: White / Caucasian

Lists

47 votes

Acting Dynasties: Generations of Performers (52 items)
list by Joseph Grey

Published 3 months, 3 weeks ago

17 comments

45 votes

My Husband Says That Vampires Suck (500 items)
list by Holy Godiva

Published 2 months ago

17 comments

44 votes

Different actors, same characters (74 items)
list by Lexie

Published 2 years, 6 months ago

17 comments

37 votes

Dracula actors (14 items)
list by Elfflame

Published 4 years, 8 months ago

6 comments

32 votes

Hollywood Dynasties (88 items)
list by Lexie

Published 2 years, 3 months ago

7 comments

View all John Carradine lists (8 more)

Photos

1 vote

View all John Carradine pictures (25 more)

About: Though best known to modern filmgoers as a horror star, cadaverous John Carradine was, in his prime, one of the most versatile character actors on the silver screen. The son of a journalist father and physician mother, Carradine was given an expensive education in Philadelphia and New York. Upon graduating from the Graphic Arts School, he intended to make his living as a painter and sculptor, but in 1923 he was sidetracked into acting. Working for a series of low-paying stock companies throughou Though best known to modern filmgoers as a horror star, cadaverous John Carradine was, in his prime, one of the most versatile character actors on the silver screen. The son of a journalist father and physician mother, Carradine was given an expensive education in Philadelphia and New York. Upon graduating from the Graphic Arts School, he intended to make his living as a painter and sculptor, but in 1923 he was sidetracked into acting. Working for a series of low-paying stock companies throughout the 1920s, he made ends meet as a quick-sketch portrait painter and scenic designer. He came to Hollywood in 1930, where his extensive talents and eccentric behavior almost immediately brought him to the attention of casting directors. He played a dizzying variety of distinctive bit parts -- a huntsman in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), a crowd agitator in Les Miserables (1935) -- before he was signed to a 20th Century Fox contract in 1936. His first major role was the sadistic prison guard in John Ford's Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), which launched a long and fruitful association with Ford, culminating in such memorable screen characterizations as the gentleman gambler in Stagecoach (1939) and Preacher Casy ("I lost the callin'!") in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Usually typecast as a villain, Carradine occasionally surprised his followers with non-villainous roles like the philosophical cab driver in Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) and Abraham Lincoln in Of Human Hearts (1938). Throughout his Hollywood years, Carradine's first love remained the theater; to fund his various stage projects (which included his own Shakespearean troupe), he had no qualms about accepting film work in the lowest of low-budget productions. Ironically, it was in one of these Poverty Row cheapies, PRC's Bluebeard (1944), that the actor delivered what many consider his finest performance. Though he occasionally appeared in an A-picture in the 1950s and 1960s (The Ten Commandments, Cheyenne Autumn), Carradine was pretty much consigned to cheapies during those decades, including such horror epics as The Black Sleep (1956), The Unearthly (1957), and the notorious Billy the Kid Meets Dracula (1966). He also appeared in innumerable television programs, among them Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Thriller, and The Red Skelton Show, and from 1962 to 1964 enjoyed a long Broadway run as courtesan-procurer Lycus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Though painfully crippled by arthritis in his last years, Carradine never stopped working, showing up in films ranging from Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) to Peggy Sue Got Married (1984). Married four times, John Carradine was the father of actors David, Keith, Robert, and Bruce Carradine. ... (more)

American (4), Male (3), Horror (2), Died 1988 (2), Born 1906 (2), Deceased (2), Actro (1), Died Aged 82 (1), Horror Film Actor (1), Dramas (1), 1980s (1), Stage (1), 1970s (1), Movies (1), 1960s (1), T.v. (1), 1950s (1), Comedies (1), 1940s (1), Family Tradition (1)

Movies

1. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Rating:

7.8

1149 Watched

2. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

Rating:

6.8

519 Watched

3. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Rating:

7.7

380 Watched

4. The Secret of NIMH (1982)

Rating:

7.5

445 Watched

5. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Rating:

359 Watched

View all John Carradine movies (218 more)

TV

1. The Munsters (1964)

Rating:

6.6

476 Watched

2. Bonanza (1959)

Rating:

6.2

125 Watched

3. Kung Fu (1972)

Rating:

6.4

120 Watched

4. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)

Rating:

7.1

55 Watched

5. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)

Rating:

7.5

41 Watched

View all John Carradine TV (21 more)

Updates feed

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Onion Jack added this to a list 2 months ago

My Husband Says That Vampires Suck (500 person items)

"Count Dracula House of Frankenstein (1944) Count Dracula House of Dracula (1945) "I will explain everything, before sunrise." Count Dracula Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) Count Dracula Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula (1979) "I don't even have my own fangs anymore. But in the old days, in my time of youth, I had magnificent fangs. All the ladies would say I was hung like a walrus! ""

Joseph Grey voted for an image 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Joseph Grey added this to a list 3 months, 3 weeks ago

Acting Dynasties: Generations of Performers (52 person items)

"John Carradine was a great character actor, spanning multiple eras of film making history. John Carradine was a stage and movie actor, appearing in movies beginning in the 1930's. Look this guy up in IMDB, and you will be astonished at how many movies he has appeared in. A workaholic in the most extreme sense, he probably lived most of his life on a movie set. His most famous film appearances are in Captains Courageous (1937), Stagecoach (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1940), The Grapes of Wr"