Diana Serra Cary
Diana Serra Cary, actress, is better known to generations of movie watchers as "Baby Peggy" Montgomery (see her bio and photo under that listing).
Harry Carey
(Deceased)
Harry Carey, actor, was born as Henry DeWitt Carey II on Jan. 16, 1878 in The Bronx, New York. His father owned a sewing machine company and was also a Judge. Young Harry studied law at New York University.
However, one of life's little twists resulting in a complete change of course for Harry Carey. It seems that he was involved in a boating accident, fell in the frigid water and caught pneumonia. This was extremely serious back then, as the wonder drug penecilin had not been invented and people often died from pneumonia. During the course of his recovery, with time on his hands, he wrote a play.
And when he recovered from his illness, he took the play on the road and actually made a substantial amount of money. His next play, though, was a flop and drained his resources. His second wife, actress Olive Fuller Golden, arranged for him to meet movie director John Ford. And Carey, in turn, arranged for Ford to meet the boss of Universal Studios. That scratching of each other's back led to a close friendship up until something strained it in about 1921.
Harry Carey not only starred in dozens of silent Western movies but he also directed some of them and wrote the screenplays for others. He was even nominated for an Oscar for his non-cowboy role in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".
Somewhere along the way the riff between John Ford and Carey seems to have healed and the two worked together, again in 1936 ("The Prisoner of Shark Island").
Harry Carey and his son, Harry Carey, Jr., worked together in the John Wayne movie, "Red River. " Harry Carey was suffering from emphysema and cancer at the time, and he died of a coronary thrombosis on Sept. 21, 1947 at Brentwood, CA. That movie was released in 1948.
[NOTE: I went to The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in May of 2003 for a special showing of still photos taken during the filming of "Stagecoach". And a note attached to Harry Carey's photo said that he died from complications resulting from the bite of a black widow spider. Anyone out there know for sure?]
Harry Carey, Jr., was working with John Wayne on another John Ford directed movie, "Three Godfathers" (also released in 1948) at the time of his father's death. And John Ford dedicated that movie "To Harry Carey - Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky." Harry Carey was buried, not in Hollywood or even at his ranch north of present-day Santa Clarita, CA., but at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. His ranch home is now a museum property of the State of California. My wife and I got to tour it in March of 2000, when we were in Santa Clarita for their annual Cowboy Music & Poetry Festival.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Harry Carey.
Harry Carey, Jr.
Harry Carey, Jr., cowboy movie star, was born north of Saugus, CA. , on May 16, 1921 at the 1000-acre ranch of his famous acting parents, cowboy star Harry Carey, Jr., and actress Olive Golden. His place of birth is listed as Saugus, CA., but that small town has merged with Newhall and Canyon Country to become Santa Clarita, CA.
The ranch was a real working ranch with mostly Navajo hands. So Carey, Jr., grew up speaking Navajo and riding horses and working with cattle. The property below the ranch house was caught in the terrible flood of about 1928 when the Santa Felicia Dam, some two or three miles upstream, broke and sent a mighty wall of water down the Santa Clara valley to the Pacific Ocean at Ventura, CA. Over 600 people were killed in that 60-mile rampage, including two of the ranch hands working for the Careys. (I got to tour the ranch in about 1999, when I performed at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Poetry Gathering. It will soon become a State Park site.)
Harry Carey, Jr., joined the U.S. Navy when World War II was going on. He was a medical corpsman stationed in the South Pacific. Although he fought it, he was back to the states to work with director John Ford--now his father's friend, again--in making propagand films and working in promotional events for the government.
When the War ended, young Carey was unemployed and floundering. He decided he wanted to become a singer, but that didn't work out. He managed to get two or three bit acting parts, and then was in the right place at the right time. In 1946 John Ford let him have a part in "Red River" starring his father and John Wayne, though the father and son are never seen on screen together.
That relationship with John Ford deepened when the elder Harry Carey died late in 1947. And Harry Carey, Jr., became one of the three stars of "The Three Godfathers", again with John Wayne. Thereafter, he and Ben Johnson and Ward Bond and John Wayne were certified members of the so-called John Ford Stock Company.
Harry Carey also worked in TV. He starred in a TV series set on a ranch, "The Adventures of Spin and Marty"(it was aired as part of "The Mickey Mouse Club" show and is now in constant syndication). He also made guest appearances on "Little House on the Prairie," "Gunsmoke," "The Virginian," "The Legend of Jesse James," "Branded," "Wagon Train," "Rawhide," "The Rifleman," "Laramie," "The Overland Trail," and "Broken Arrow".
Harry Carey, Jr., tells the story of his life in his autobiography, Company of Heroes: My life as an actor in the John Ford Stock Company. Besides detailing his own interesting life, he reveals stories behind the making of nine films by director John Ford. Those movies include "The Searchers," " She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," " Rio Grande," " Wagonmaster," " Two Rode Together" and "Cheyenne Autumn".
Some of his other Western credits include "Rio Bravo" (1959), "The Rare Breed" (1961), "Bandolero!" (1968), "Death of a Gunfighter" (1969), "Cahill: U.S. Marshal" (1973), "The Long Riders" (1980), "The Shadow Riders" (1982, TV), "Once Upon a Texas Train" (1988, TV), "Tombstone" (1993), "Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone" (1994) and "Last Stand at Saber River" (1997, TV).
In April of 2003, Harry Carey, Jr. was inducted into the Westerner's Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. His father, likewise, had been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Harry Carey, Jr.
MacDonald Carey
(Deceased)
MacDonald Carey, actor, was born as Edward MacDonald Carey on March 15, 1913 in Sioux City, IA.
MacDonald Carey appeared in some fifty movies over a 50-year period, including these Westerns: "Streets of Laredo" (1949), "Comanche Territory" (1950), "Copper Canyon" (1950), "The Great Missouri Raid" (1951), "Cave of Outlaws" (1951), "Outlaw Territory" (1953) and "Broken Sabre" (1966).
Carey also appeared in such TV series as "Branded," "Rawhide," "Wagon Train," and "Zane Grey Theater." However, most audiences today know him as the Dr. Tom Horton, Sr., on the TV soap opera, "Days of Our Lives". He played that role for nearly 30 years, from 1965 to 1994.
MacDonald Carey died of lung cancer at the age of 81 on March 21, 1994, and is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery (Grotto, 19, L196), in Culver City, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of MacDonald Carey.
Margaret Standish Carey
Margaret Standish Carey was born on Nov. 28, 1926. She married Robert E. Carey on Sept. 3, 1949. She worked in the adverting departments of the Albany (Or.) Democrat-Herald and the Corvallis (Or.) Gazette-Times back in the 1940's and 1950's. She was a local correspondent for the Brownsville (Or.) Times from the 1950's to the 1970's. Since 1976, she has been a partner in Calapooia Publications, located in Brownsville, and is a self-employed writer/editor/publisher.Besides her extensive newspaper credits, Margaret Standish Carey is the co-author of a series of county histories: Brownsville: Linn County's Oldest Town (1976), Halsey: Linn County's Centennial City (1977), Shedd (1978) and Sweet Home in the Oregon Cascades (1979). And she contributed a chapter to Margaret Felt's anthology on Native American women, Daughters of the Land (1988, Maverick Publications, Bend, Or.). Her ancestors crossed the plains to Oregon in 1848 and 1853. She and her husband, Bob, live on a rye grass seed farm.
Phillip Carey
Phillip Carey, actor, was one of a few actors who could literally look James Arness or Clint Walker straight in the eyes. That is because he, like them, comes in at 6' 6" tall.
He is perhaps best known to cowboy fans as "Captain Parmalee" of the Texas Rangers in the TV Western series, "Laredo". But he may be best known, world-wide, for his role of Asa Buchanan in the TV soap opera, "One Life to Live." He started that role in 1979.
Marvin Carnagey
Marvin Carnagey, cowboy poet, spent many years as a working cowboy in Oklahoma, but now lives in Arcadia, CA. He began writing cowboy poetry in 1993 following the death of a cowboy pal during a cattle roundup. That first poem was titled, "The Last Roundup." He has performed at many cowboy poetry gatherings across the country.
Ed Carpenter
Ed Carpenter lives near Grand Junction, Colorado. He has a large repertoire of ballads and sentimental songs from the 1870's to mid-twentieth century. He has been gathering and singing these songs since the 1930's when he was eleven years old.Ed was raised on a cow ranch near Hayden, Colorado attended college in California and had a career as a civil engineer. Since 1974 in Colorado, he continued his engineering profession and served as a state legislator until retirement in 1989.
He has appeared as a featured performer at Arvada and Denver, Co,Ruidoso, N.M., Valentine, Nebr., and Laramie, Wyoming; locally at nursing homes; veteran's and service clubs and reunions; and for his twelve grandchildren. His new album, "Plain Bull and Bunk House Songs" has seventeen representative songs from this era.
Harold Carpenter
Harold Carpenter, cowboy poet, was a cowboy poet long before being a cowboy poet was "cool." He published his first book of cowboy poetry in 1969 and called it, Poems of the West.
He is a regular featured poet at the Oklahoma Cowboy Poetry Gathering at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
Harold Carpenter, also an accomplished trick roper, lives in Cedarville, Kansas.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors. Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents are requested to submit recommended changes by contacting Stan Paregien through his
e-mail address.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
-- Jesus the Christ ( Bible: Matthew 11:28-30)
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.