John David Carson
| John David Carson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Franklin Carson [1] March 6, 1952 North Hollywood, Los Angeles, U.S. |
| Died |
October 27, 2009 (aged 57) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1966-1990 |
John David Carson (born John Franklin Carson; March 6, 1952 – October 27, 2009) was an American actor. He was born in North Hollywood, California.
Career
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 the name John David Carson.
Carson's first feature film was Pretty Maids All in a Row 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.[2][3]
Another notable role was in the 1976 film Stay Hungry, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jeff Bridges and Sally Field. Carson also appeared in a great deal of television productions, including Hawaii Five-O and Charlie's Angels. He portrayed "Jay Spence" on Falcon Crest, a prime-time soap opera.[4]
He played "Larry Burns", a television repairman who is briefly 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 (1977), an adaptation of an H. G. Wells story about gigantic, man-eating ants, Creature from Black Lake (1976), Charge of the Model T's (1977) and The Fifth Floor (1978), and acted alongside George C. Scott in The Day of the Dolphin (1973). He again appeared opposite Scott, playing his character's son, in The Savage is Loose (1974). 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 voluntarily retired from acting after this role.
Personal life
John Franklin Carson was the son of Western actor Aldrich "Kit" Carson and Rosamonde (née James) Carson, a fashion model, and was of Irish 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.[5]
Carson was raised as a Christian Scientist, which he claimed, in an interview, to practice daily.
Death
Carson was briefly married to model Vicki Morgan. He died on October 27, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was survived by his widow, Diana Carson, and their daughter.
References
- ↑ "Franklin Carson - Free Birth & Vital Records".
- ↑ "AllMovie - Movies and Films Database - Movie Search, Ratings, Photos, Recommendations, and Reviews".
- ↑ "Pretty Maids All in a Row". Answers.com. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
- ↑ Staff. "John David Carson profile". TV.com. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
- ↑ "On the Loose with "John David Carson"". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-09-24.