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.