Wishing all you dads out there a wonderful Father’s Day! Among the many virtues of this day is the opportunity I get to post this great pic once again. It’s Timothy, his wife Doris and their six young’uns, from the early 1970s. It accompanied the article “Timothy Carey: The World’s Greatest Director!” by Harvey F. Chartrand in Filmfax Plus magazine #102 (April/June 2004).
Happy day, dads, fathers and father figures!
On this date twenty years ago, Timothy passed away. It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years already. However, though his corporeal form has left us, his spirit remains, as vital and larger-than-life as ever. For someone I never actually met, he certainly has essentially taken over my life. And I’m perfectly fine with that. Here is his obituary, as it appeared in the New York Times on May 17, 1994.
Timothy Carey, a character actor whose films ranged from Paths of Glory and One-Eyed Jacks to 1960’s beach movies, died on Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was 65.
His son Romeo announced the death on Sunday and said the cause was a stroke.
Timothy Carey’s acting career began with a part in Billy Wilder‘s 1951 movie The Big Carnival [aka Ace in the Hole] and included more than 50 feature films and many television roles.
He often played a villain. Two of his most recognized roles were in Stanley Kubrick films, The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957). He acted in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) with Marlon Brando and in John Cassavetes‘ Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976).
He also appeared in Bikini Beach (1964) and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965).
Mr. Carey wrote and directed himself in The World’s Greatest Sinner, in 1962.
In addition to his son Romeo, he is survived by his wife, Doris, and five other children, Mario, Velencia, Silvana, Dagmar and Germain.
Me visiting Tim, 2011.
And since it’s Mother’s Day, here’s Tim and his mom.
Carey was certainly attracting the right kinds of people with such skewed antics. In 1956, Stanley Kubrick gave Carey the role of racist horse-killer Nikki Arane in The Killing and the court-martialled French private Ferol in Paths Of Glory (1957). They remain two of the most powerful, sinister and haunted performances in all of Kubrick’s films.
Yet, it’s once we stray off the path of conventional film-making and into the murky world of the B-movie that Carey’s true genius reveals itself. Alongside junk cinema king Peter Graves, Tim Carey appeared in Harold Daniels‘ Poor White Trash (1961) [ed. note: originally released as Bayou in 1957] as Ulysses, a mean-eyed Cajun loon. The film’s highlights include Carey performing the most disturbing inbred zydeco dance ever committed to celluloid, then attacking Graves with a very big axe. […]
Edit – 30 September 2002
We received this additional info on Carey from his second cousin once removed. Thanks Susan!
“My Dad remembers playing with Tim in Brooklyn as a kid… he said he was a funny guy way before he headed to California… used to go out in the street with a flute and play it while directing traffic. They also used to mess around with a dumbwaiter hoisting each other up and down.”
– Andrew Male, “Timothy Carey,” Bizarre magazine #27 (January 2000)
I believe I’ve posted this before, but I actually got ahold of a print version of this press release article, so here it is as it appeared in The Bay City [Michigan] Times TV TIMES, September 1, 1968. I like how Timothy mentions The World’s Greatest Sinner (1962) without naming it. Or maybe he did, and the higher-ups decided it wasn’t appropriate for family newspapers.
P.S. Yesterday was the busiest day ever on the blog! Welcome to all our new fans and friends! Thank you for stopping by – don’t be strangers now!
Wishing all you dads out there a wonderful Father’s Day! Among the many virtues of this day is the opportunity I get to post this great pic once again. It’s Timothy, his wife Doris and their six young’uns, from the early 1970s. It accompanied the article “Timothy Carey: The World’s Greatest Director!” by Harvey F. Chartrand in Filmfax Plus magazine #102 (April/June 2004).
Have a great day, dads!
Today’s pic is another from Chain of Evidence (1957), one of the low-budget crime dramas starring former Western star “Wild Bill” Elliott as Det. Lt. Andy Doyle. Timothy’s bad-tempered Carl Fowler is confronting the man who gave him that scar, Steve Nordstrom (Jimmy Lydon). Tim must have filmed this around the same time as Francis in the Haunted House (1956), as he’s sporting basically the same flat-top haircut in both.
To completely change the subject, I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Tim’s son Romeo Carey and his wife on the recent birth of their third child, daughter Prima! Timothy has a new grandchild. That warms my fuzzy little heart.
This week we feature another newspaper article that needs to be posted in full. It’s from the Delaware County (PA) Daily Times of August 28, 1968.
EVEN POLICE GET NERVOUS AT SIGHT OF CHARACTER ACTOR
Timothy Carey is one of the country’s top character actors, but he has a face that makes you want to scream for the cops.
Even policemen get nervous when they catch sight of this gentle man who looks as though he’s bound to have horns under his hair.
“I can’t even take a stroll through a park,” says Carey. “As soon as women see my face they start gathering up their children and running for home.”
Carey, who will portray a foreign agent in “The Fear of High Places,” the premiere episode of the NBC Television Network’s new “Name of the Game” series Sept. 20, says he never walks into a liquor store late at night for fear of giving store owners heart attacks.
“Every time a policeman gets a look at me I can see the wheels starting to turn in his head. He’s positive that I’m on his ‘wanted’ list for at least three major crimes.”
In real life Carey is a devoted husband and the father of five children. They all live in a happy, noisy home which contains, among other things, ducks, chickens, cats, dogs and a goose.
His kids love to see their father as the “bad guy” in movies and television. “They hiss and boo right along with everyone else,” laughs Tim.
The Brooklyn-born former Marine plays such a bad “bad guy” that he always winds up dead. “Characters as evil as the ones I play just can’t be allowed to remain in society,” says Carey. “The only time I ever managed to ‘stay alive’ all the way through a picture was when I wrote and produced one myself.”
Last week, while driving home from the studio, Carey was hailed to the curb by a suspicious policeman.
“He had his ticket book in one hand as he walked up to the window,” says Carey, “but he had the other hand on his gun.”
As he has so often in the past Carey assured the officer that he was just a hard working actor, not a wanted criminal.
“Now I recognize you. You’re the guy that always loses,” said the officer as he folded his ticket book and smiled.
“This time you’re going to win.”
This being Saint Patrick’s Day and all, I wish I knew more about Timothy’s father’s side of the family. What I have gleaned from my research is that Joseph A. Carey was a second-generation Irishman. He worked as a fireman until he was sidelined after an accident. According to the census record from 1930 below, he was employed at the time in real estate. He died, year and age unknown, after a stroke he suffered in an elevator on Wall Street.
I’m sure Tim would join me in celebrating his Irish ancestry by wishing you all a happy and safe Saint Patrick’s Day! Go easy on the green beer now! Cheers!
It’s Valentine’s Day, and that means love. This delightful picture of Timothy, his wife Doris, and their six children appeared in the article “Timothy Carey: The World’s Greatest Director!” by Harvey F. Chartrand, Filmfax Plus magazine #102 (April/June 2004).
Today is also the birthday of Tim’s daughter Germain, the baby of the family and, as she will tell you, “the adorable one” in this photo! Happy birthday, Germain!
The Timothy Carey Experience 