Carson was born on October 27, 1910, in Carman, Manitoba, to Elmer[2][a] and Elsa Carson (née Brunke).[3] He was the younger brother of actor Robert Carson (1909–1979). His father was an executive with an insurance company.[2] 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.[citation needed]
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".[2]
After the act with Willock broke up, Carson teamed with dancer Betty Alice Lindy for appearances in theaters on the Orpheum Circuit.[4]
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,[5] and in the next season he starred in The New Jack Carson Show, which debuted on June 2, 1943.[6] 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."[2]
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.
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). He also did work for Columbia Pictures, starring in a slapstick comedy, The Good Humor Man in 1950, co-starring his future wife, Lola Albright.
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.[11] 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).
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)[12] and was the announcer on the television version of Strike It Rich.[12]: 1028
His TV pilot, Kentucky Kid, was under consideration as a potential series for NBC, but was shelved when Carson became ill with stomach cancer. Carson would have played a veterinarian who raises horses and who has an adopted Chinese child. The series was revived by NBC as Kentucky Jones starring Dennis Weaver in the Carson role.[13]
On February 8, 1960, Carson received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the television and radio industry. The television star is located at 1560 Vine Street, the radio star is at 6361 Hollywood Boulevard.[14][15]
In 1983, after his death, Jack Carson was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Artists Hall of Fame along with Dennis Morgan, who was also from Wisconsin.[16]
Carson and Elizabeth Lindy were married in 1938 and divorced 1939. He was married to Kay St. Germain from 1941 to 1950. He and Lola Albright were married from 1952 to 1958. Carson was married from 1961 until his death in 1963 to Sandra Jolley, former wife of actor Forrest Tucker and daughter of actor I. Stanford Jolley. Carson had a romantic relationship with Doris Day in 1950–1951, but she left him for Marty Melcher, who became her third husband.[17]
On August 26, 1962, while rehearsing the play Critic's ChoiceinAndover, New Jersey, he collapsed on stage. An early diagnosis deemed it a stomach disorder, but two months later, stomach cancer was discovered while he was undergoing an unrelated operation. He died in Encino, California, on January 2, 1963, at the age of 52. Dick Powell, whom Carson had known for years, died (aged 58) on the same date, also from cancer.[18] Carson was entombed in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.
Carson's elder brother, Robert Carson (1909-1979), was also a character actor.
^The "Jack Carson" section in the book Once Upon a Time in Paradise: Canadians in the Golden Age of Hollywood gives the father's name as "Edward L. Carson".
^ abTerrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 520. ISBN978-0-7864-6477-7.
Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Jack Carson". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 65–67. ISBN978-1-7200-3837-5.
