Background
Jack Carson was born on 27 October 1910 in Carman, Manitoba, Canada.
Jack Carson was born on 27 October 1910 in Carman, Manitoba, Canada.
He was cast and he was relied on, and one in ten times he was indelible—as the soft-hearted person who kills himself for love and dignity in The Hard Way (42, Vincent Sherman); as the scapegrace dreamer/scheiner in Roughly Speaking (45, Michael Curtiz); as the hopeless lech and would-be smartie in Mildred Pierce (45, Curtiz); as Matt Libby, the odious studio publicity man, in A Star Is Born (54, Ceorge Cukor) and as the father to no-neck monsters in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (58, Richard Brooks).
Apart from that, he was only perfect: Stage Door (37, Gregory La Cava); You Only Live Once (37, Fritz Lang); Vivacious Lady (38, George Stevens); a roustabout in Bringing Up Baby (38, Howard Hawks); Carefree (38, Mark Sandrich); Mr Smith Goes to Washington (39, Frank Capra); Destry Rides Again (39, George Marshall); I Take This Woman (40, W. S. Van Dvke); Lucky Partners (40, Lewis Milestone); Typhoon (40, Louis King); Mr. and Mrs. Smith (41, Alfred Hitchcock); The Strawberry Blonde (41, Raoul Walsh); very funny in Love Crazy (41, Jack Conway); The Bride Came C O D (41, William Keighley); Navy Blues (41, Lloyd Bacon); The Male Animal (42, Elliott Nugent); Larceny Inc. (42, Bacon); Wings for the Eagle (42, Bacon); Gentleman Jim (42, Walsh); Princess O’Rourke (43, Norman Krasna); newly wed to Jane Wyman in The Doughgirls (44, James V. Kern).
In The Hard Way, he and Dennis Morgan had played a show-biz double act, and they were teamed up in several more pictures, like Shine On, Harvest Moon (44, David Butler); he was a detective in Make Your Own Bed (44, Peter Godfrey); with Morgan in One More Tomorrow (46, Godfrey), Two Guys from Milwaukee (46, Butler), and The Time, the Place and the Girl (46, Butler); Love and Learn (47, Frederick De Cordova); with Ann Sothern in Apnl Showers (48, Kern); Romance on the High Seas (48, Curtiz), his first Doris Day picture; with Morgan again in Two Guys from Texas (48, Butler); with Morgan and Day in It’s a Great Feeling (49, Butler); with Day in My Dream Is Yours (49, Curtiz); with Ronald Reagan in John Loves Mary (49, Butler); Bright Leaf (50, Curtiz).
He was The Good Humor Man (50, Bacon), with Lola Albright, who became his fourth wife; a wrestling promoter in Mr Universe (51, Joseph Lemer); The Groom Wore Spurs (51, Richard Whorf); Dangerous When Wet (53, Charles Walters); Red Garters (54, Marshall); Phffft! (54, Mark Robson); Ain’t Misbehavin' (55, Edward Buzzell); The Bottom of the Bottle (56, Henry Hathaway); The Tattered Dress (57, Jack Arnold); Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (58, Leo McCarey); The Bramble Bush (60, Daniel Petrie); Kingof the Roaring 20s (61, Joseph M. Newman).
Never nominated or celebrated, never given lead roles in front-rank pictures, Jack Carson could be stupid, vacant, coarse, vain, amiable, decent, touching, nasty, hateful even ordinary. Somehow one doubts that he ever got, or needed, much direction. Instead he understood story and character.