John David Carson
Encyclopedia
John David Carson was an American actor. He was born in North Hollywood, California
. Carson began his career at a young age, acting in television advertisements, and later doing cartoon voice-acting for Hanna-Barbera
. He attended Los Angeles Valley College
where he played a lead role in their 1969 production of The Taming Of The Shrew
. Upon beginning his Hollywood career he was immediately engaged in a dispute with Johnny Carson
over the use of their shared name; he subsequently went by his full name, "John David Carson." He appeared in many B-movies and television shows throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
in 1971, a sex comedy set in a high school, also featuring Rock Hudson
. Carson portrayed "Ponce de Leon Harper", a nerdy and sexually inexperienced young man who is tormented with lust at the pretty young women around him at school and suffers from chronic priapism
. Ponce is eventually "mentored" by his guidance counselor, played by Hudson, an expert at seducing younger women, who takes him under his wing and persuades an attractive female teacher to sleep with him. The film was directed by Roger Vadim
and the screenplay was written by Gene Roddenberry
of Star Trek
fame. Besides Hudson, the cast also included Telly Savalas
, Angie Dickinson
, Roddy McDowall
and James Doohan
. This was an anomaly of Carson's career, and he was thereafter relegated mostly to background roles despite his standout performance.
Aside from Pretty Maids All in a Row, Carson's most notable role was in the 1976 film Stay Hungry
, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger
, Jeff Bridges
and Sally Field
. He portrayed the notorious troublemaker "Halsey", whose obnoxious antics and mockery of Joe Santo (Schwarzenegger) touch off one of the primary conflicts of the film.
Carson appeared in a great deal of television productions, including Hawaii Five-O
and Charlie's Angels
, typically playing bit parts. He portrayed "Jay Spence" on Falcon Crest
, a prime-time soap opera
. He played "Larry Burns", a television repairman who is framed for a woman's murder by a corrupt sheriff, on Murder She Wrote and an Irish
jockey named "Kevin Ryan" on Charlie's Angels. He appeared in various B-movies such as Empire of the Ants
(an adaptation of an H. G. Wells
story about gigantic, man-eating ants), and The Creature from Black Lake, and acted alongside George C. Scott
in The Day of the Dolphin
. He again appeared opposite Scott, playing his character's son, in The Savage is Loose
. Carson continued acting in small parts up until 1990, appearing in the Julia Roberts hit Pretty Woman
, which marked his very last appearance on film. He, also can be seen in the last scene of "Postcards from the Edge" immediately before Meryl Streep sings. He voluntarily retired from acting after this role.
He wrote a screenplay while living in Las Vegas, which was semi-autobiographical and reflected the trials and experiences of his life as an actor. George C. Scott was to be featured in it, though the character representing Carson would be played by a young, "unknown" actor with the same background as himself. Scott, who was close with Carson, was to help produce the screenplay; after Scott's death, the plans for production were abandoned. The current whereabouts of the screenplay are not known.
and Cherokee
ancestry. He entered Hollywood from a theater background; at the time of his arrival on the motion-picture scene, he had already undergone several traumatic incidents. His parents had split up; furthermore, he had been involved in a serious motorcycle accident which left him almost completely deaf in his left ear, according to an interview in Interview Magazine. At only 17 years old, Carson was quite overwhelmed by these personal issues and by the pressure he felt in his acting career. He turned to LSD
to attempt to gain some self-realization. By his own admission, "it provided a catharsis" for him, but also left him frequently confused.
In this same interview he complained of sexual advances towards him by male directors of films and theater productions. In his own words - "I don't care about anybody's sexual preferences - I really don't; I wouldn't want anyone to object to my sexual preferences. But when it's forced on you, for reasons of personal gain - when they say it's going to be the end of your career if you don't comply with their wishes - I think it's low, it's cheap." Carson attributed some of his lack of success in theater to this issue.
Carson was raised as a Christian Scientist, which he claimed to still practice on a day to day basis. In the interview he also expressed an interest in Scientology
and astrology
.
He was passionate about acting, but decided to retire from the business, citing his desire not to be "a pawn in Hollywood."
Carson was romantically involved with actress Kim Darby
. He was also briefly married to model Vicki Morgan
, who was later murdered in a very high-profile case, from 1976 to 1977.
He died on October 27, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was survived by his long-time girlfriend and wife of 3 years, Diana Carson, and their daughter.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Carson began his career at a young age, acting in television advertisements, and later doing cartoon voice-acting for Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
. He attended Los Angeles Valley College
Los Angeles Valley College
Los Angeles Valley College is a community college located in the Valley Glen district of Los Angeles, California in the east-central San Fernando Valley. The school is a part of the Los Angeles Community College District....
where he played a lead role in their 1969 production of The Taming Of The Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
. Upon beginning his Hollywood career he was immediately engaged in a dispute with Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
over the use of their shared name; he subsequently went by his full name, "John David Carson." He appeared in many B-movies and television shows throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Film career
Carson's first feature film was Pretty Maids All in a RowPretty Maids All in a Row
Pretty Maids All in a Row is an American mystery film starring Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson that is part dark comedy, part murder mystery. It was released on April 28, 1971, directed by Roger Vadim, and written and produced by Gene Roddenberry based on a novel by Francis Pollini.Pretty Maids was...
in 1971, a sex comedy set in a high school, also featuring Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
. Carson portrayed "Ponce de Leon Harper", a nerdy and sexually inexperienced young man who is tormented with lust at the pretty young women around him at school and suffers from chronic priapism
Priapism
Priapism is a potentially harmful and painful medical condition in which the erect penis or clitoris does not return to its flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours. There are two types of priapism: low-flow and high-flow. Low-flow...
. Ponce is eventually "mentored" by his guidance counselor, played by Hudson, an expert at seducing younger women, who takes him under his wing and persuades an attractive female teacher to sleep with him. The film was directed by Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
and the screenplay was written by Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
fame. Besides Hudson, the cast also included Telly Savalas
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...
, Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson
Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...
, Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
and James Doohan
James Doohan
James Montgomery "Jimmy" Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek...
. This was an anomaly of Carson's career, and he was thereafter relegated mostly to background roles despite his standout performance.
Aside from Pretty Maids All in a Row, Carson's most notable role was in the 1976 film Stay Hungry
Stay Hungry
Stay Hungry is the third album by American heavy metal band Twisted Sister. Released on May 10, 1984, the album features the band's two biggest hits, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" and the power ballad "The Price." According to RIAA certification, Stay Hungry gained Multi-Platinum...
, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
, Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon "Jeff" Bridges is an American actor and musician. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Otis "Bad" Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart....
and Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
. He portrayed the notorious troublemaker "Halsey", whose obnoxious antics and mockery of Joe Santo (Schwarzenegger) touch off one of the primary conflicts of the film.
Carson appeared in a great deal of television productions, including Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
and Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
, typically playing bit parts. He portrayed "Jay Spence" on Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
, a prime-time soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
. He played "Larry Burns", a television repairman who is framed for a woman's murder by a corrupt sheriff, on Murder She Wrote and an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
jockey named "Kevin Ryan" on Charlie's Angels. He appeared in various B-movies such as Empire of the Ants
Empire of the Ants
"Empire of the Ants" is a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells, which inspired a film of the same title in 1977. The story involves an explorer who is dispatched to South America to investigate reports of intelligent ants destroying a colony. It was published in 1905 in The Strand...
(an adaptation of an H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
story about gigantic, man-eating ants), and The Creature from Black Lake, and acted alongside George C. Scott
George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American stage and film actor, director and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr...
in The Day of the Dolphin
The Day of the Dolphin
The Day of the Dolphin is a 1973 American science-fiction thriller film directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott. Loosely based on the 1967 novel, Un animal doué de raison , by French writer Robert Merle, the screenplay was written by Buck Henry.-Plot:A brilliant and driven scientist,...
. He again appeared opposite Scott, playing his character's son, in The Savage is Loose
The Savage is Loose
The Savage is Loose is a 1974 psychological melodrama that addresses incest within a small marooned family on a deserted island. It starred George C...
. Carson continued acting in small parts up until 1990, appearing in the Julia Roberts hit Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy film set in Los Angeles, California. Written by J.F. Lawton and directed by Garry Marshall, this motion picture features Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and also Hector Elizondo, Ralph Bellamy, and Jason Alexander in supporting roles. Roberts played the only...
, which marked his very last appearance on film. He, also can be seen in the last scene of "Postcards from the Edge" immediately before Meryl Streep sings. He voluntarily retired from acting after this role.
He wrote a screenplay while living in Las Vegas, which was semi-autobiographical and reflected the trials and experiences of his life as an actor. George C. Scott was to be featured in it, though the character representing Carson would be played by a young, "unknown" actor with the same background as himself. Scott, who was close with Carson, was to help produce the screenplay; after Scott's death, the plans for production were abandoned. The current whereabouts of the screenplay are not known.
Personal life
Carson was the son of Western actor Aldrich "Kit" Carson and Rosamonde "Boots" James Carson, a fashion model, and was of IrishIrish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
and Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
ancestry. He entered Hollywood from a theater background; at the time of his arrival on the motion-picture scene, he had already undergone several traumatic incidents. His parents had split up; furthermore, he had been involved in a serious motorcycle accident which left him almost completely deaf in his left ear, according to an interview in Interview Magazine. At only 17 years old, Carson was quite overwhelmed by these personal issues and by the pressure he felt in his acting career. He turned to LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
to attempt to gain some self-realization. By his own admission, "it provided a catharsis" for him, but also left him frequently confused.
In this same interview he complained of sexual advances towards him by male directors of films and theater productions. In his own words - "I don't care about anybody's sexual preferences - I really don't; I wouldn't want anyone to object to my sexual preferences. But when it's forced on you, for reasons of personal gain - when they say it's going to be the end of your career if you don't comply with their wishes - I think it's low, it's cheap." Carson attributed some of his lack of success in theater to this issue.
Carson was raised as a Christian Scientist, which he claimed to still practice on a day to day basis. In the interview he also expressed an interest in Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
and astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
.
He was passionate about acting, but decided to retire from the business, citing his desire not to be "a pawn in Hollywood."
Carson was romantically involved with actress Kim Darby
Kim Darby
Kim Darby is an American actress perhaps best known for co-starring with John Wayne and country singer/actor Glen Campbell in the 1969 western True Grit.-Early life and film career:...
. He was also briefly married to model Vicki Morgan
Vicki Morgan
Vicki Morgan was a model and a high-profile murder victim.-Background:...
, who was later murdered in a very high-profile case, from 1976 to 1977.
He died on October 27, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was survived by his long-time girlfriend and wife of 3 years, Diana Carson, and their daughter.