He moved to Britain and sang with Ted Heath and His Music in the 1940s and starred in the BBC Radio serial Riders of the Range (1949–1953) as the cowboy Jeff Arnold, where he shared the billing with his dog, Rustler (played by Percy Edwards).[4]
As a movie actor he "made over three dozen British films in the post-war decades, most of them 'B' pictures, such as Diplomatic Passport (1954) and One Jump Ahead (1955), to which he brought an easy, likeable authority that seemed more difficult for British actors to achieve". His final (uncredited) film appearance was in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger where he played an American General escorting James Bond.[5]
During 1955-1956, he starred in his only television programme, Sailor of Fortune with Lorne Greene.
Death
During rehearsals for the play The First Fish by Frank Tarloff at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, with a cast that included Moira Lister, Louie Ramsay and Ray Barrett, Carpenter arrived at the theatre and asked to be helped to a dressing room as he felt unwell. The director, Charles Ross, and the other actors were unaware he was at the theatre. He was found dead alone in the dressing room three hours later. He had recently recovered from injuries suffered in a car accident.[2][3]
Partial filmography
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2008)
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