Harry Carey

Known for ActingBorn 1878-01-16Died 1947-09-21The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Henry DeWitt Carey II (January 16, 1878 - September 21, 1947) was an American actor and one of silent film's earliest superstars, usually cast as a Western hero. One of his best known performances is as the president of the United States Senate in the drama film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor. Born in New York City to a Judge of Special Sessions who was also president of a sewing machine company. Grew up on City Island, New York. Attended Hamilton Military Academy and turned down an appointment to West Point to attend New York University, where his law school classmates included future New York City mayor James J. Walker. After a boating accident which led to pneumonia, Carey wrote a play while recuperating and toured the country in it for three years, earning a great deal of money, all of which evaporated after his next play was a failure. In 1911, his friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to director D.W. Griffith, for whom Carey was to make many films. Carey married twice, the second time to actress Olive Fuller Golden (aka Olive Carey, who introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle to use Ford as a director, and a partnership was born that lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921. During this time, Carey grew into one of the most popular Western stars of the early motion picture, occasionally writing and directing films as well. In the '30s he moved slowly into character roles and was nominated for an Oscar for one of them, the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He worked once more with Ford, in The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), and appeared once with his son, Harry Carey Jr., in Howard Hawks' Red River (1948). He died after a protracted bout with emphysema and cancer. Ford dedicated his remake of 3 Godfathers (1948) "To Harry Carey--Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky."Read more

Movies & web series

Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs

Wild Mustang

Powdersmoke Range

Burning Bridges

The Border Patrol

The Frontier Trail

The Seventh Bandit

Crashin' Thru

Human Stuff

Blue Streak McCoy

Guilty

The Canceled Mortgage

In Diplomatic Circles

A Gamble with Death

Red Hicks Defies the World

I Was Meant for You

Inside Information

Land of Liberty

The Movie Album

The Bad Lands

The Texas Trail

The Prairie Pirate

Beyond the Border

Tiger Thompson

The Flaming Forties

The Lightning Rider

The Miracle Baby

The Kickback

The Fox

Bullet Proof

Overland Red

For the Love of a Girl

The Jackals of a Great City

The Devil's Own

The Conspiracy

His Desperate Deed

A Double Winning

The Tenderfoot's Money

The Work Habit

The Van Nostrand Tiara

The Stopped Clock

For Her Government

The Vanishing Legion

Street of Missing Men

Lest We Forget

Aces Wild

Rustler's Paradise

Sunset Pass