Paul Carpenter (actor)

Canadian actor and singer (1921–1964)

Pauline Black

(m. 1947; div. 1953)

Kim Parker

(m. 1955; div. 1958)

Paul Carpenter (born Patrick Paul Lane Charpentier; 8 December 1921 – 12 June 1964) was a Canadian actor and singer.^[1]

Life and career

Carpenter originally attended medical school in Montreal, but left aged 17 to join the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a war correspondent.^[2] He also played professional hockey in Canada.^[3]

He moved to Britain and sang with Ted Heath and His Music in the 1940s and starred in the BBC Radio serial Riders of the Range (1949–1953) as the cowboy Jeff Arnold, where he shared the billing with his dog, Rustler (played by Percy Edwards).^[4]

As a movie actor he "made over three dozen British films in the post-war decades, most of them 'B' pictures, such as Diplomatic Passport (1954) and One Jump Ahead (1955), to which he brought an easy, likeable authority that seemed more difficult for British actors to achieve". His final (uncredited) film appearance was in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger where he played an American General escorting James Bond.^[5]

During 1955-1956, he starred in his only television programme, Sailor of Fortune with Lorne Greene.

Death

During rehearsals for the play The First Fish by Frank Tarloff at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, with a cast that included Moira Lister, Louie Ramsay and Ray Barrett, Carpenter arrived at the theatre and asked to be helped to a dressing room as he felt unwell. The director, Charles Ross, and the other actors were unaware he was at the theatre. He was found dead alone in the dressing room three hours later. He had recently recovered from injuries suffered in a car accident.^[2]^[3]

Partial filmography

This Man Is Mine (1946) – (uncredited)
School for Secrets (1946) – Flt. Lt. Argylle
Uneasy Terms (1948) – Windy Nicholls
The Third Man (1949) – International Patrol D (uncredited)
Landfall (1949) – F / O Morgan
Albert R.N. (1953) – Fred
Face the Music (1954) – Johnny Sutherland
The Weak and the Wicked (1954) – Joe, Bab's boyfriend
Night People (1954) – Eddie Whitby
The House Across the Lake (1954) – Vincent Gordon
The Diamond (1954) – Mickey Sweeney (uncredited)
Johnny on the Spot (1954) – Paul Carrington
Five Days (1954) – Paul Kirby
Duel in the Jungle (1954) – Pan American Airways Clerk
A Stranger Came Home (1954) – Bill Saul
Diplomatic Passport (1954) – Ray Anderson
The Young Lovers (1954) – Gregg Pearson
The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954) – Lt Patrick Boyle, Sea Otter Pilot
Mask of Dust (1954) – Racetrack Announcer (uncredited)
The Red Dress (1954) – Hannibal Jones (segment "Meet Mr. Jones' story)
The Last Moment (1954) – Derwent (segment: 'The Last Moment')
Shadow of a Man (1955) – Gene Landers
One Jump Ahead (1955) – Paul Banner
The Hornet's Nest (1955) – Bob Bartlett
Doctor at Sea (1955) – Captain (uncredited)
Stock Car (1955) – Larry Duke
The Narrowing Circle (1956) – Dave Nelson
Women Without Men (1956) – Nick Randall (UK version)
The Iron Petticoat (1956) – Major Lewis
Reach for the Sky (1956) – Hall (uncredited)
Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956) – Capt. Larson
Behind the Headlines (1956) – Paul Banner
The Battle of the River Plate (1956) – American reporter in Uruguay (uncredited)
Action Stations (1956) – Bob Reynolds
No Road Back (1957) – Clem Hayes
Murder Reported (1957) – Jeff Holly – Reporter^[6]
The Hypnotist (1957) – Valentine Neal
Les Espions (1957) – Le Colonel Howard
Undercover Girl (1958) – Johnny Carter
Intent to Kill (1958) – O'Brien
Jet Storm (1959) – George Towers
Date at Midnight (1959) – Bob Dillon
Wernher von Braun (1960) – Launch Countdown Coordinator (uncredited)
Surprise Package (1960) – Television News Broadcaster (uncredited)
Jacktown (1962) – Policeman No. 1
Panic (1963) – Fight Commentator
Call Me Bwana (1963) – Col. Spencer
Dr. Crippen (1963) – Bruce Martin
Maigret Sees Red (1963) – Harry McDonald
The Beauty Jungle (1964) – American Tourist (uncredited)
First Men in the Moon (1964) – Reporter from the 'Express' (uncredited)
Goldfinger (1964) – US General at airport (uncredited) (final film role)

External links

Paul Carpenter at IMDb

References

^ "Paul Carpenter". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 August 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Paul Carpenter, actor, Dies Before Rehearsal in London". The New York Times. 13 June 1964.
^ ^a ^b "Paul Carpenter – Actor". northernstars.ca. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
^ "Charles Chilton". The Daily Telegraph. 3 January 2013.
^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film (softcover) (1st ed.). London & Basingstoke: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-84457-319-6.
^ "Murder Reported". BFI.org.uk. British Film Institute. 1957. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2022.