Arthur William Matthew Carney (November 4, 1918 – November 9, 2003) was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best known for his role as Ed Norton on the sitcom The Honeymooners (1955–1956).
Carney, the youngest of six sons (his brothers were Jack, Ned, Robert, Fred, and Phil), was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Helen (née Farrell) and Edward Michael Carney, a newspaperman and publicist.[citation needed] His family was Irish American and Catholic.[2] He attended A.B. Davis High School.[3]
Carney was a comic singer with the Horace Heidt orchestra, which was heard often on radio during the 1930s, notably on the hugely successful Pot o' Gold, the first big-money giveaway show in 1939–41. Carney's film career began with an uncredited role in Pot o' Gold (1941), the radio program's spin-off feature film, playing a member of Heidt's band. Carney, a gifted mimic, worked steadily in radio during the 1940s, playing character roles and impersonating celebrities such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. He can be seen impersonating Roosevelt in a 1937 promotional film for Stewart-Warner refrigerators that is preserved by the Library of Congress.[5] as well as during a 1966 appearance as a Mystery Guest on What's My Line.[6] In 1941, he was the house comic on the big band remote series Matinee at Meadowbrook.
One of his radio roles during the 1940s was the first Red Lantern on Land of the Lost. In 1943 he played Billy Oldham on Joe and Ethel Turp, based on Damon Runyon stories. He appeared on The Henry Morgan Show in 1946–47. He impersonated Roosevelt on The March of Time and Dwight D. Eisenhower on Living 1948. In 1950–51 he played Montague's father on The Magnificent Montague. He was a supporting player on Casey, Crime Photographer and Gang Busters.
Television
Carney on his variety show Art Carney Special (1959).
On both the radio and television versions of The Morey Amsterdam Show (1948–50), Carney's character Charlie the doorman became known for his catchphrase, "Ya know what I mean?".
In 1950, Jackie Gleason was starring in the New York–based comedy-variety series Cavalcade of Stars and played many different characters. Gleason's regular characters included Charlie Bratten, a lunchroom loudmouth who insisted on spoiling a neighboring patron's meal. Carney, established in New York as a reliable actor, played Bratten's mild-mannered victim, Clem Finch. Gleason and Carney developed a good working chemistry, and Gleason recruited Carney to appear in other sketches, including the domestic-comedy skits featuring The Honeymooners. Carney gained lifelong fame for his portrayal of sewer worker Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's bus driver, Ralph Kramden. The success of these skits resulted in the famous situation comedy The Honeymooners and the Honeymooners revivals that followed. He was nominated for seven Emmy Awards and won six.
Between his stints with Gleason, Carney worked steadily as a character actor and occasionally in musical-variety. He guest-starred on NBC's Henry Morgan's Great Talent Hunt (1951), The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, and many others, including as a mystery guest four times on What's My Line?, dressed as Ed Norton for his first appearance. Carney also had his own NBC television variety show from 1959 to 1960.
In 1958, he starred in an ABC children's television special Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf, which featured the Bil Baird Marionettes. It combined an original story with a marionette presentation of Serge Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Some of Prokofiev's other music was given lyrics written by Ogden Nash. The special was a success and was repeated twice.
Art Carney surrounded by several marionettes from his television special, Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf (1958).
Carney starred in a Christmas episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Night of the Meek", playing a dramatic turn as an alcoholic department store Santa Claus who later becomes the real thing. In 1964, he guest-starred in the episode "Smelling Like a Rose" along with Hal March and Tina Louise in the CBS drama Mr. Broadway, starring Craig Stevens. In the season two opening episodes 35 and 36 of the Batman television series, titled "Shoot a Crooked Arrow" and "Walk the Straight and Narrow" (1966), Carney performed as the newly introduced villain "The Archer". In 1967, he was originally cast as Geppetto for the Hallmark adaption of Pinocchio, but illness prevented him from appearing when taping time arrived. He was later replaced by Burl Ives.
He starred as Police Chief Paul Lanigan in the 1976 television film Lanigan's Rabbi, and in the short-lived series of the same name that aired in 1977 as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie lineup.[9]
In 1978, Carney appeared in Star Wars Holiday Special, a television film that was linked to the Star Wars film series. In it, he played Trader Saun Dann, a member of the Rebel Alliance who helped Chewbacca and his family evade an Imperial blockade. The same year, he appeared as the father of Ringo Starr's alter ego "Ognir Rrats" in the made for television special "Ringo". Carney appeared on an episode of Alice.
Among his final television roles were a series of commercials for Coca-Cola in which he played a man enjoying a day out with his grandson played by actor Brian Bonsall, including a famous Christmas commercial based around the famous Rockefeler Center Christmas tree in New York.
Recordings
Carney recorded prolifically in the 1950s for Columbia Records. Two of his hits were "The Song of the Sewer", sung in character as Norton, and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", a spoken-word record in which Carney, accompanied only by a jazz drummer, recited the famous Yuletide poem in syncopation. Some of Carney's recordings were comedy-novelty songs, but most were silly songs intended especially for children.
In 1990, he co-starred in a movie called, “Where Pigeons Go to Die” with Michael Landon. He played the role of a grandfather who taught his grandson little life lessons that would follow him for the rest of his life.
His final film role was in the 1993 action comedy film Last Action Hero.
Broadway
Carney made his Broadway debut in 1957 as the lead in The Rope Dancers with Siobhán McKenna, a drama by Morton Wishengrad. His subsequent Broadway appearances included his portrayal in 1965–67 of Felix Unger in The Odd Couple (opposite Walter Matthau and then Jack Klugman as Oscar). In 1969 he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Brian Friel's Lovers. In 1961–62, Carney played Frank Michaelson in an English comedy by Phoebe & Henry Ephron titled Take Her, She's Mine with Phyllis Thaxter as his co-star in the Biltmore Theatre in New York; the character was played by James Stewart in the 1963 film version.
Personal life
Carney was married three times to two women. In 1940, he married his high school sweetheart Jean Myers, with whom he had three children, Eileen, Brian and Paul, before divorcing in 1965. In 1966, Carney married production assistant Barbara Isaac; they divorced in 1977. After his divorce from Isaac, he reunited with Myers, and they remarried in 1980 and remained together until his death.[10][11] His grandson is Connecticut state representative Devin Carney[12] and his great-nephew is musician and actor Reeve Carney.[13]
According to Carney, he was an alcoholic by his late teens. His stage partner, comedian Ollie O'Toole, "would order gin and grapefruit juice for us in the morning and, gee, it was great." Carney later used barbiturates, amphetamines, and alcohol substitutes. To battle his addiction, which he said ran in the family, he tried psychotherapy and joined Alcoholics Anonymous. He finally found success with Antabuse and quit drinking during the filming of Harry and Tonto.[4]
Carney died at a care home in Chester, Connecticut, on November 9, 2003, five days after his 85th birthday.[10][11] He is interred at Riverside Cemetery in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Jean Carney died on October 31, 2012, at the age of 93.[14]
In 1954, the Board of Directors of the Florida Water and Sewage Works Operators Association (now the Florida Water and Pollution Control Operators Association) unanimously passed a resolution that Carney be granted an Honorary Life Membership in the Association in recognition for his constant humorous reminders to the American public that sewage systems exist.
While he was starring in The Odd Couple on Broadway, Carney's caricature was drawn on the walls of Sardi's Restaurant.[24]
In 2002, Carney was portrayed by Michael Chieffo in Gleason, a 2002 television biopic about the life of his Honeymooners co-star Jackie Gleason.[25]
