Frank Spencer Sutton was an American actor best remembered for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter on the Columbia Broadcasting System television series Gomer Pyle, United States.M.C.
Background
Sutton was born in Clarksville in Montgomery County in northern Tennessee, the only child of Frank Sims Sutton (1885-1938) and the former Dorris Thelma Spencer (1903-1986). When he was eight years old, his father became employed as a Linotype operator at the Nashville Tennessean in Nashville. His father died from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage and left behind his wife and 14-year-old son.
Education
Sutton developed an interest in acting, playing his first role at age nine and also starring in the drama club at East Nashville High School, where he graduated in 1941. He attended the Columbia University School of General Studies, graduating cum laude with a bachelor"s degree in drama in 1952.
Career
He later said, "The first time I walked out on a stage, I had a warm feeling. I knew then I wanted to be an actor."
After high school, Sutton returned to Clarksville to become a radio announcer. He enlisted in the United States. Army during World World War II and served in the South Pacific, taking part in 14 assault landings.
Honorably discharged at the war"s end as a sergeant, he began acting on stage.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Sutton played small roles in television shows such as Decoy, Route 66, Naked City, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Fugitive, The Goldbergs, 87th Precinct, Gunsmoke, Target: The Corruptors, Empire, The Twilight Zone, and The Untouchables. In 1955, he received his big break in the Academy Award-winning movie Marty, in which he played the title character"s friend, Ralph.
He also had a role in The Satan Bug, a 1965 spy thriller. He returned to the stage in The Andersonville Trial in the early 1960s.
Having primarily acted in dramas, Sutton"s breakthrough role was on "Gomer Pyle, United States.M.C.", a 1964 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, in which he played the cynical and easily exasperated Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter opposite Jim Nabors" character Gomer Pyle.
This episode led to a spin-off television comedy, Gomer Pyle, United States Marine Corps, where Sutton continued the role for five seasons, until the show ended its run in 1969. He also appeared in public service announcements in the role of Gunnery Sergeant Carter. After Gomer Pyle ceased production, Sutton appeared regularly on Nabors" variety show The Jim Nabors Hour with Gomer Pyle co-star Ronnie Schell.
Sutton played the brother-in-law of Nabors" character in comedy sketches.
Sutton performed in dinner theater, playing, among other roles, the father in Norman, Is That You? and made guest appearances on other television programs. In 1949, Sutton married the former Toby Igler, a soap-opera writer, and they had two children, Joseph and Amanda.
In February 2016, Toby Sutton, who apparently never remarried, was ninety-two years of age and living in New York City. On June 28, 1974, while preparing for a performance in the comedy play, Luv, at the Beverly Barn Dinner Playhouse in Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana, Sutton died of a heart attack.
He was 50 years old. He is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in his hometown of Clarksville.
Achievements
Membership
Served with Army of the United States, 1943-1946.
Connections
Married Toby M. Igler, August 26, 1949. Children: Joseph David, Amanda Lee.