Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on October 12, 2014

Carey is a Brooklyn boy who never went far in high school but has acted in 16 films and six TV shows. He says: “What I really want to do is write. I’ve got a script right here, which I call L.A., that I’d like you to read.”

Carey isn’t about to quote Shakespeare but he’s living proof that “All the World’s a Stage…” He’ll say: “I joined the U.S. Marines at 15, was at Parris Island and finished boot training when they learned my age. Then I was out.”

That brief hitch with the Leathernecks was enough to entitle the unusually tall (6 feet 5 inches) Carey to go to school on the GI Bill. He elected drama school. He says: “When I got to Hollywood, I heard Henry Hathaway was casting Prince Valiant. I rented a Viking costume for $15, climbed a studio fence, confronted him with drawn sword. I didn’t get the part.”

Carey’s early penchant for such monkeyshines had him in the doghouse with half of Hollywood—but he’s acting and eating while many a more retiring youngster is waiting for a call, he says.

– George Murray, “Loop Movies,” Chicago Daily News, January 15, 1958

Timothy during the unfinished A.L. shoot, 1956

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on August 3, 2014

After that [The Wild One], I tried to get into PRINCE VALIANT (54, Robert Wagner starred). So I went to Western Costume to dress up like Sir Black [sic; the character’s name is actually Brack. The part eventually went to James Mason], the heavy in it.They fitted me in this outfit, all sashed pants and that had a medieval glove with a weapon from that era. And I thought, how am I gonna get in there, so I went to climb the fence at 20th Century Fox, but I couldn’t make it because of the clothes I had on. It was right near a golf course and a golfer helped me over with a ladder. I told him I was an actor on the set who got lost. I tried to find the director, Henry Hathaway, but he wasn’t in his office so I went to the commissary where he was having lunch and said, “Here I am, Sir Black! My men number many. I’m here for the part. Do I get it?” I took out my knife. He said, “Put the knife away, you got the part.” Then I was escorted off the lot. I never got the part, but I enjoyed it. It was fun.

– Psychotronic Video magazine #6, Summer 1990; interview by Michael Murphy and Johnny Legend, research by Michael J. Weldon

Pic of the Day: “Rumble on the Docks” revisited

Posted by Marisa on July 14, 2014

Our pic of the day takes another look at Fred F. Sears‘ Rumble on the Docks (1956), kind of a teenage On the Waterfront with a side of West Side Story thrown in for good measure. Racketeer Joe Brindo (Michael Granger) and his torpedo Frank Mangus are pleased with the outcome of a big court case.

Granger had appeared with Timothy three years earlier in Henry Hathaway‘s White Witch Doctor (1953), both of them in don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-’em roles. He became another dependable character actor in films and on television in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961 he made several TV appearances, then dropped out of sight until 1977, when he portrayed his final role in an episode of Kojak. What he was up to in that sixteen-year interval is a mystery. He died of a heart attack in 1981, at the age of 58.

Pic of the Day: “White Witch Doctor” revisited

Posted by Marisa on August 6, 2013

Today being the birthday anniversary of the legendary Robert Mitchum, I thought it apropos that we revisit Timothy’s barely-there appearance in Henry Hathaway‘s White Witch Doctor (1953). He’s the henchman of bad guy Walter Slezak, here conferring with Mitchum in the jungles of deepest darkest Africa.

Tim was reportedly fired from this film, with the notoriously irascible Hathaway seething, “He can keep his wardrobe, I don’t care – just get him the hell off my set!” This didn’t stop Tim from pestering Hathaway a year later for a part he didn’t get in Prince Valiant (1954).

Pic of the Day: “White Witch Doctor” revisited

Posted by Marisa on August 2, 2012

Today we take another look at Timothy’s fleeting appearance in Henry Hathaway‘s White Witch Doctor (1953). He portrays – big surprise here – one of bad guy Walter Slezak‘s henchmen, tracking down Robert Mitchum deep in the jungles of Africa.

This was another film that Tim was fired from, even though it’s the first feature film in which he received screen credit. According to Mitchum, the notoriously irascible Hathaway was heard to bellow, “Get that Carey guy off my set! He can keep his wardrobe, I don’t care! Just get him out of here!” Oh, dear.

Quote of the Week

Posted by Marisa on February 19, 2012

In New Haven, they put me on the stage to help whip up some interest in Bayou. They hollered when I did the dance. It out-Elvises Elvis… What I really want to do is write. I’ve got a script right here, which I call L.A., that I’d like you to read… I joined the U.S. Marines at 15, was at Parris Island and finished boot training when they learned my age. Then I was out… When I got to Hollywood, I heard Henry Hathaway was casting Prince Valiant. I rented a Viking costume for $15, climbed a studio fence, confronted him with drawn sword. I didn’t get the part.

– Interview with George Murray, Chicago Daily News, “Loop Movies,” January 15, 1958

Pic of the Day: “White Witch Doctor”

Posted by Marisa on September 13, 2011

Today’s pic (click to embiggen, blah blah, you know this) features Tim in one of his very early film appearances. It’s yet another don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-him part. The film is White Witch Doctor (1953), directed by the notorious Henry Hathaway and starring Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward. Tim is the henchman of bad guy Walter Slezak.

He doesn’t last too long, but true to form, he makes sure he strategically positions himself for some good shots like this one. Hathaway encountered Tim again a year later, I’ve no doubt much to his chagrin, when Tim costumed himself in medieval garb, climbed over a wall at the Fox studios, and accosted Hathaway in the commissary, angling for a part in Prince Valiant (1954). He didn’t get it.