Art Carney
Art Carney | |
---|---|
Born | Arthur William Matthew Carney November 4, 1918 Mount Vernon, New York, U.S. |
Died | November 9, 2003 Chester, Connecticut, U.S. | (aged 85)
Resting place | Riverside Cemetery, Old Saybrook, Connecticut, U.S. |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1939–1993 |
Spouses | Jean Myers
(m. 1940; div. 1965)
(m. 1980)Barbara Isaac
(m. 1966; div. 1977) |
Children | 3 |
Family | Reeve Carney (great-nephew) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/ | United States Army |
Years of service | 1943–1945[1] |
Rank | Private |
Unit | 28th Infantry Division[1] |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Awards | World War II Victory Medal |
Arthur William Matthew Carney (November 4, 1918 – November 9, 2003) was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best known for his role as Ed Norton on the sitcom The Honeymooners (1955–1956).
His film roles include Harry and Tonto (1974), The Late Show (1977), House Calls (1978), Going in Style (1979), Firestarter, The Muppets Take Manhattan (both 1984), and Last Action Hero (1993).
Early life
Carney, the youngest of six sons (his brothers were Jack, Ned, Robert, Fred, and Phil), was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Helen (née Farrell) and Edward Michael Carney, a newspaperman and publicist.[citation needed] His family was Irish American and Catholic.[2] He attended A.B. Davis High School.[3]
Carney was drafted into the
Career
Radio
Carney was a comic singer with the
One of his radio roles during the 1940s was the first Red Lantern on
Television
On both the radio and television versions of The Morey Amsterdam Show (1948–50), Carney's character Charlie the doorman became known for his catchphrase, "Ya know what I mean?".
In 1950,
Between his stints with Gleason, Carney worked steadily as a character actor and occasionally in musical-variety. He guest-starred on
In 1958, he starred in an ABC children's television special Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf, which featured the
Carney starred in a Christmas episode of
In 1970, Carney appeared as Skeet in "The Men from Shiloh" (the rebranded name of
He starred as Police Chief Paul Lanigan in the 1976 television film Lanigan's Rabbi, and in the short-lived series of the same name that aired in 1977 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie lineup.[9]
In 1978, Carney appeared in Star Wars Holiday Special, a television film that was linked to the Star Wars film series. In it, he played Trader Saun Dann, a member of the Rebel Alliance who helped Chewbacca and his family evade an Imperial blockade. The same year, he appeared as the father of Ringo Starr's alter ego "Ognir Rrats" in the made for television special "Ringo". Carney appeared on an episode of Alice.
In 1980, he starred in the TV film Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story. In 1984, he portrayed Santa Claus in the holiday television film The Night They Saved Christmas.
Among his final television roles were a series of commercials for Coca-Cola in which he played a man enjoying a day out with his grandson played by actor Brian Bonsall, including a famous Christmas commercial based around the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York.
Recordings
Carney recorded prolifically in the 1950s for Columbia Records. Two of his hits were "The Song of the Sewer", sung in character as Norton, and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", a spoken-word record in which Carney, accompanied only by a jazz drummer, recited the famous Yuletide poem in syncopation. Some of Carney's recordings were comedy-novelty songs, but most were silly songs intended especially for children.
He also narrated a version of
Films
Carney won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his 1974 performance as Harry Coombes, an elderly man going on the road with his pet cat, in Harry and Tonto. Other nominees that year were Albert Finney, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino. It was presented to him at the 47th Academy Awards on April 8, 1975, by actress Glenda Jackson, with whom Carney went on to co-star in the comedy House Calls in 1978. Carney also won a Golden Globe award for his performance in Harry and Tonto.
In demand in Hollywood after that, Carney then appeared in W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (as a deranged preacher), The Late Show (as an aging detective), House Calls (as a senile chief surgeon), Movie Movie (in multiple roles), and Going in Style (as a bored senior citizen who joins in on bank robberies). Later films included The Muppets Take Manhattan, the crime drama The Naked Face, and the sci-fi thriller Firestarter.
In 1981, he portrayed Harry R. Truman, an 83-year-old lodge owner in the semi-fictional account of events leading to the eruption of Mount St. Helens in St. Helens.
In 1990, he co-starred in a movie called, “Where Pigeons Go to Die” with Michael Landon. He played the role of a grandfather who taught his grandson little life lessons that would follow him for the rest of his life.
His final film role was in the 1993 action comedy film Last Action Hero.
Broadway
Carney made his Broadway debut in 1957 as the lead in The Rope Dancers with Siobhán McKenna, a drama by Morton Wishengrad. His subsequent Broadway appearances included his portrayal in 1965–67 of Felix Unger in The Odd Couple (opposite Walter Matthau and then Jack Klugman as Oscar). In 1969 he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Brian Friel's Lovers. In 1961–62, Carney played Frank Michaelson in an English comedy by Phoebe & Henry Ephron titled Take Her, She's Mine with Phyllis Thaxter as his co-star in the Biltmore Theatre in New York; the character was played by James Stewart in the 1963 film version.
Personal life
Carney was married three times to two women. In 1940, he married his high school sweetheart Jean Myers, with whom he had three children, Eileen, Brian and Paul, before divorcing in 1965. In 1966, Carney married production assistant Barbara Isaac; they divorced in 1977. After his divorce from Isaac, he reunited with Myers, and they remarried in 1980 and remained together until his death.[10][11] His grandson is Connecticut state representative Devin Carney[12] and his great-nephew is musician and actor Reeve Carney.[13]
According to Carney, he was an alcoholic by his late teens. His stage partner, comedian Ollie O'Toole, "would order gin and grapefruit juice for us in the morning and, gee, it was great." Carney later used barbiturates, amphetamines, and alcohol substitutes. To battle his addiction, which he said ran in the family, he tried psychotherapy and joined Alcoholics Anonymous. He finally found success with Antabuse and quit drinking during the filming of Harry and Tonto.[4]
Carney died at a care home in Chester, Connecticut, on November 9, 2003, five days after his 85th birthday.[10][11] He is interred at Riverside Cemetery in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Jean Carney died on October 31, 2012, at the age of 93.[14]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1941 | Pot o' Gold | Band member / Radio Announcer | Uncredited |
1950 | PM Picnic | The Narrator | |
1955–56 | The Honeymooners | Ed Norton | |
1958 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Cyril T. Jones | Season 4 Episode 8: "Safety for the Witness" |
1964 | The Yellow Rolls-Royce | Joey Friedlander | |
1967 | A Guide for the Married Man | "Joe X", Married Man | |
1972 | The Snoop Sisters: 'Female Instinct' | Barney | with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick |
1974 | Harry and Tonto | Harry Coombes | Academy Award for Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
1975 | W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings | Deacon John Wesley Gore | |
Death Scream | Mr. Jacobs | TV movie (aka Street Kill) | |
Katherine | Thornton Alman | TV movie | |
1976 | Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood | J.J. Fromberg | |
1977 | The Late Show | Ira Wells | National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor |
Scott Joplin | John Stark | ||
1978 | House Calls | Dr. Amos Willoughby | |
Movie Movie | Dr. Blaine / Dr. Bowers | (segment "Dynamite Hands") / (segment Baxter's Beauties of 1933") | |
Star Wars Holiday Special | Trader Saun Dann | ||
1979 | Ravagers | Sergeant | |
You Can't Take It With You | Grandpa Martin Vanderhof | ||
Steel | "Pignose" Moran | ||
Sunburn | Marcus | ||
Going in Style | Al | Pasinetti Award for Best Actor | |
1980 | Defiance | Abe | |
Roadie | Corpus C. Redfish | ||
Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story | Robert Stroud | TV movie | |
Fighting Back: The Rocky Bleier Story | Art Rooney | TV movie | |
1981 | Bitter Harvest | Walter Peary | TV movie |
Take This Job and Shove It | Charlie Pickett | ||
St. Helens | Harry Truman | ||
The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold | The Narrator / Blarney Kilakilarney | TV movie, Voice | |
1982 | Better Late Than Never | Charley Dunbar | |
1983 | The Last Leaf
|
Mr. Behrman | |
1984 | Terrible Joe Moran | Tony | TV movie |
Firestarter | Irv Manders | ||
The Naked Face | Morgens | ||
The Muppets Take Manhattan | Bernard Crawford | ||
The Night They Saved Christmas | Santa Claus | TV movie | |
1985 | The Undergrads | Mel Adler | |
Izzy and Moe | Moe Smith | TV movie | |
The Blue Yonder | Henry Coogan | TV movie | |
1986 | Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story | Father Michael T. O'Halloran | |
1987 | Night Friend | Monsignor O'Brien | |
1990 | Where Pigeons Go to Die | Da | Nominated — Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
|
1993 | Last Action Hero | Frank | (final film role) |
Awards and tributes
- Carney won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his 1974 performance as Harry Coombes, an elderly man going on the road with his pet cat, in Harry and Tonto. Other nominees that year were Albert Finney, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino. It was presented to him at the 47th Academy Awards on April 8, 1975, by actress Glenda Jackson, with whom Carney went on to co-star in the comedy House Calls in 1978.
- Art Carney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Television Category at 6627 Hollywood Boulevard, awarded on February 8, 1960.[15]
- In 1954 the Board of Directors of the Florida Water and Sewage Works Operators Association (now the Florida Water and Pollution Control Operators Association) unanimously passed a resolution that Carney be granted an Honorary Life Membership in the Association in recognition for his constant humorous reminders to the American public that sewage systems do exist.
- While starring in The Odd Couple on Broadway, Carney's caricature was drawn for walls of Sardi's Restaurant.[16]
- In 2002, Carney was portrayed by Michael Chieffo in Gleason, a 2002 television biopic about the life of his Honeymooners co-star Jackie Gleason.[17]
- In 2004, Carney was posthumously inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
- Jackie Gleason said that Carney deserved ninety percent of the credit for the success of The Honeymooners.[18]
- The city of Yonkers, New York, named the corner of Margaret Ave. and Westchester Ave. as Art Carney Place, because Carney once lived in the city.
In popular culture
- Carney is referenced twice in the song "Celebrity Art Party" by American band The Embarrassment.
- In 1994, the music group The Swirling Eddies named a song after Carney on their album Zoom Daddy titled "Art Carney's Dream."
References
- ^ a b c d e Carney, Arthur William, Pvt. army.togetherweserved.com. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
- ^ "'Honeymooners' actor Art Carney dies." China Daily, Beijing. November 12, 2003.
- ^ Art Carney Yahoo! Movies: Biography Archived May 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Wilkins, Barbara. Art Carney Wins in a Film—and Over Alcoholism. People magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 17 via Internet Archive. Published October 21, 1974. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ Stewart-Warner Refrigerator Sales Film. Library of Congress. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021 – via YouTube.
- ^ What's My Line? - Walter Cronkite; Art Carney; PANEL: Steve Allen, Anne Douglas (Mar 27, 1966). Archived from the original on November 17, 2021 – via YouTube.
- ^ "The Great Santa Claus Switch (TV Movie 1970)". IMDb. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "The Great Santa Claus Switch". YouTube. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television". museum.tv. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ a b Severo, Richard (November 12, 2003). "Art Carney, 85, Lauded 'Honeymooners' Actor, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 21, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ^ a b McLellan, Dennis (November 11, 2003). "Actor Art Carney dead at 85". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
- ^ Hewitt, Cate (December 6, 2019). "State Rep. Devin Carney on Hartford, Party Lines, and His View of the Coming Session". The Connecticut Examiner. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
- ^ Sessums, Kevin (September 17, 2021). "FIVE QUESTIONS FOR … Reeve Carney". Grazia USA. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
- ^ "Jean Carney Obituary". Dignity Memorial - Swan Funeral Home. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ "Art Carney". October 25, 2019.
- ISBN 978-1557830517. Archivedfrom the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- ^ Gallo, Phil (October 10, 2002). "Gleason". Variety. Archived from the original on December 11, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- ^ McLellan, Dennis (November 12, 2003). "From the Archives: 'Honeymooners' Sidekick Art Carney Dies". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
External links
- Art Carney at IMDb
- Art Carney at the Internet Broadway Database
- Art Carney at the TCM Movie Database
- Art Carney on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
- Art Carney discography at Discogs