John Elmer Carson (October 27, 1910 – January 2, 1963), known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM (where he was cast opposite Myrna Loy and William Powell in Love Crazy, 1941), but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.
Early years
Carson was born on October 27, 1910, in Carman, Manitoba, to Elmer and Elsa Carson (née Brunke). He was the younger brother of actor Robert Carson (1909–1979). His father was an executive with an insurance company. In 1914, the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which he reportedly always regarded as his home town. He attended high school at Hartford School (Milwaukee) and St. John's Military Academy (Delafield, Wisconsin), and at Carleton College, he acquired a taste for acting. Carson became a U.S. citizen in 1949.
Because of his size – 6 ft 2 in (1.9 m) and 220 lb (100 kg) – his first stage appearance (in a collegiate production) was as Hercules. In the midst of a performance, he tripped and took half the set with him. Dave Willock, a college friend, thought it was so funny he persuaded Carson to team with him in a vaudeville act – Willock and Carson – and a new career was born with "a very successful comedy team that played large and small vaudeville theatres everywhere in North America".
After the act with Willock broke up, Carson teamed with dancer Betty Alice Lindy for appearances in theaters on the Orpheum Circuit.
Radio
Radio was another source of employment for the team, starting with a 1938 appearance on the Kraft Music Hall when Bing Crosby hosted the show. In 1942–1943, he was host of The Camel Comedy Caravan, and in the next season he starred in The New Jack Carson Show, which debuted on June 2, 1943. Charles Foster wrote about the show in Once Upon a Time in Paradise: Canadians in the Golden Age of Hollywood: "It broke audience records regularly during the four years it was on the air. Hollywood's biggest stars ... lined up to do guest spots on the show."
In 1947–1948, he starred in The Sealtest Village Store.
In 1949, as part of the show, Jack Carson's radio program toured, with Jack Carson, Marion Hutton, and Robert Alda. notably, in Chicago, and supporting John Loves Mary in New York City.
Film career
His success in radio led to the start of a lucrative film career. During the 1930s, as vaudeville declined from increased competition from radio and the movies, Willock and Carson sought work in Hollywood. Carson initially landed bit roles at RKO Radio Pictures in films such as Bringing Up Baby (1938), starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
An early standout role for Carson was as a mock-drunk, undercover G-Man opposite Richard Cromwell in Universal Pictures's anti-Nazi action drama titled Enemy Agent. This led to contract-player status with Warner Brothers. While there, he was teamed with Dennis Morgan in a number of popular films known as the "Two Guys" movies, supposedly to compete with Paramount's popular Bing Crosby – Bob Hope Road to … pictures.
Most of his work at Warner Brothers was limited to light comedy work with Morgan, and later Doris Day (who in her autobiography gave credit to Carson as one of her early Hollywood mentors). Critics generally agree that Carson's best work was in Mildred Pierce (1945), where he played the perpetually scheming Wally Fay opposite Joan Crawford in the title role. Also in 1945, he played the role of Harold Pierson, the second husband of Louise Randall, played by Rosalind Russell, in Roughly Speaking. Another role which won accolades for him was as publicist Matt Libby in A Star is Born (1954). One of his later film roles was as Cooper "Gooper" Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).
Television
From 1950 to 1951, Carson was one of four alternating weekly hosts of the comedy-variety show Four Star Revue. (The others were veterans Jimmy Durante and Ed Wynn, and up-and-coming young Danny Thomas.) The second season was his last with the show, when it was renamed All Star Revue.
Carson had his own variety program The Jack Carson Show from 1954 to 1955) and was the announcer on the television version of Strike It Rich.
