CARRADINE, JOHN

(1906–1988)

   Born Richmond Reed Carradine, this actor was called upon anytime, it seemed, that a casting director needed a tall, sophisticated gentleman with a voice befitting the dignity of an education. Probably his most famous role was that of the Southern gambler Hatfield in Stagecoach (1939). In Cheyenne Autumn (1964) he played a gambler named Jeff Blair in a comic set scene in a saloon. While the Indians are attacking and the town is lapsing into chaos, Blair and Wyatt Earp (Jimmy Stewart) nonchalantly continue their game. Carradine often appeared with John Wayne, and as a tribute, Wayne had Carradine play the gambler role in Wayne’s last film The Shootist(1976). Tall, angular, and thin, with a gorgeous, deep baritone voice, exuding sophistication and class, John Carradine was typecast as the consummate professional gambler or representative Southern gentleman from back East. Strangely, many remember Carradine for his role as Count Dracula in perhaps the worst Western ever filmed, Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966). He was the father of David Carradine.

(1906-88)

   Hollywood actor in hundreds of films - from the biggest to the cheapest - from the 1930s through the 1990s. Brought to Mexico in '66 by Ismael Rodríguez for Autopsia de un fantasma; returned to shoot scenes for 4 Vergara productions in 1967, then came back again for Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary in 1974, and The Bees in 1978.