Jack Carson

When Jack Carson arrived in Hollywood in 1937, he found work at RKO as an extra.

His first major acting role came alongside Humphrey Bogart in the romantic comedy Stand-In (1937). After a few years, he developed into a popular character actor who would be seen in a large number of comedies, musicals and a few westerns.

While touring in vaudeville, he met his first wife, dancer Betty Alice Lindy. They later performed together in a song-and-dance act ("Lindy and Carson") for a year on the Orpheum Theatre circuit. They married in 1938 but divorced a year later.

It was in the 1940s that Carson would become popular as a wisecracking comedian on radio.

Not happy with the direction his career was heading, he went to Warner Brothers in 1941, where the quality of his supporting roles improved.

It also did not hurt to be in films that starred James Cagney, such as The Strawberry Blonde (1941) and The Bride Came C. O. D.

(1941).

He and Dennis Morgan made 11 movies together: Wings for the Eagle (1942), The Hard Way (1943), Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Shine on Harvest Moon (1944), Hollywood Canteen (1944), One More Tomorrow (1946), Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946), The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946), Always Together (1947), Two Guys from Texas (1948), and It's a Great Feeling (1949).

He provided a good portrayal of "Albert" in The Hard Way (1943) and was acclaimed for his performance in Mildred Pierce (1945). However, it was comedies that provided most of his work. He teamed up with his old friend, Dennis Morgan, for several films in the tradition of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

After three years, he starred with Jane Wyman in Make Your Own Bed (1944) and, again, in The Doughgirls (1944). Carson would play the nice guy with the heart of gold who was still a nice guy even when he was angry. He would take the double take and the quizzical look to a higher level, but he could also act in dramas.

He became briefly involved with Warner Bros. singing star Doris Day while appearing together in her very first movies Romance on the High Seas (1948), It's a Great Feeling (1949) and My Dream Is Yours (1949). He was 38 and she was 26. The relationship didn't work reportedly because he drank too much.

This would lead him to television work in the 1950s, where he was one of 4 rotating hosts on All Star Revue (1950), until 1951, when he had left the show and the title was changed to "All Star Revue".

He hosted and performed on The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) from 1952-55. He would also help host The U. S.

He would appear on a number of shows during the 1950s, one of his most remembered being an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959), where he played a somewhat shady used-car salesman who came into possession of an old Model-A Ford that was "haunted" in that whoever owned it had to tell the truth, whether he wanted to or not.

Although his movie career slowed in the 1950s, he still appeared in a number of prestige pictures, such as A Star Is Born (1954) with Judy Garland, The Tarnished Angels (1957) with Rock Hudson and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman.

Worked with Ginger Rogers in six RKO pics and lost her each time to one of her leading co-stars. He finally won her in The Groom Wore Spurs (1951).

Royal Showcase (1952).

Recorded for Design Records in 1957: "Jack Carson Sings Favorite College songs". He later sang for Capitol Records.

Collapsed in August of 1962 while in rehearsal for the play "Critic's Choice." An early diagnosis deemed it a stomach "disorder," but two months later, cancer was discovered while he was undergoing an unrelated operation.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 94-95. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Carson's daughter with Kay St. Germain Wells, Germaine Catherine Carson, died of cancer on April 12, 2010. In his will, Carson inadvertently reversed her first and middle names, requiring her to apply for a legal alias or aka as Catherine Germaine Carson, a name she kept until her death.